chemist

/ˈkɛməst/

/ˈkɛmɪst/

Other forms: chemists

A scientist who studies the elements that make up all matter is a chemist. If you enjoy doing experiments that involve mixing substances in test tubes, you'd probably love being a chemist.

Chemists practice the science of chemistry, which examines the properties that make up everything in the universe. These working scientists examine the tiniest particles of substances, the atoms and molecules that form the earth, the oceans, and even you, yourself. Chemists also study how elements interact with each other and form new substances; we have chemists to thank for inventing penicillin, plastic, and artificial sweeteners, among many other things.

Definitions of chemist

1. noun

   a scientist who specializes in chemistry
   examples:

   Svante August Arrhenius

   Swedish chemist and physicist noted for his theory of chemical dissociation (1859-1927)

   Jons Jakob Berzelius

   Swedish chemist who discovered three new elements and determined the atomic weights of many others (1779-1848)

   Joseph Black

   British chemist who identified carbon dioxide and who formulated the concepts of specific heat and latent heat (1728-1799)

   Robert Boyle

   Irish chemist who established that air has weight and whose definitions of chemical elements and chemical reactions helped to dissociate chemistry from alchemy (1627-1691)

   Eduard Buchner

   German organic chemist who studied alcoholic fermentation and discovered zymase (1860-1917)

   Robert Wilhelm Bunsen

   German chemist who with Kirchhoff pioneered spectrum analysis but is remembered mainly for his invention of the Bunsen burner (1811-1899)

   Melvin Calvin

   United States chemist noted for discovering the series of chemical reactions in photosynthesis (1911-)

   Wallace Hume Carothers

   United States chemist who developed nylon (1896-1937)

   George Washington Carver

   United States botanist and agricultural chemist who developed many uses for peanuts and soy beans and sweet potatoes (1864-1943)

   Henry Cavendish

   British chemist and physicist who established that water is a compound of hydrogen and oxygen and who calculated the density of the earth (1731-1810)

   Sir William Crookes

   English chemist and physicist; discovered thallium; invented the radiometer and studied cathode rays (1832-1919)

   Marya Sklodowska

   French chemist (born in Poland) who won two Nobel prizes; one (with her husband and Henri Becquerel) for research on radioactivity and another for her discovery of radium and polonium (1867-1934)

   Robert Floyd Curl Jr.

   American chemist who with Richard Smalley and Harold Kroto discovered fullerenes and opened a new branch of chemistry (born in 1933)

   John Dalton

   English chemist and physicist who formulated atomic theory and the law of partial pressures; gave the first description of red-green color blindness (1766-1844)

   Sir Humphrey Davy

   English chemist who was a pioneer in electrochemistry and who used it to isolate elements sodium and potassium and barium and boron and calcium and magnesium and chlorine (1778-1829)

   Sir James Dewar

   Scottish chemist and physicist noted for his work in cryogenics and his invention of the Dewar flask (1842-1923)

   Manfred Eigen

   German chemist who did research on high-speed chemical reactions (born in 1927)

   Richard August Carl Emil Erlenmeyer

   German chemist (1825-1909)

   Michael Faraday

   the English physicist and chemist who discovered electromagnetic induction (1791-1867)

   Emil Hermann Fischer

   German chemist noted for work on synthetic sugars and the purines (1852-1919)

   Hans Fischer

   German chemist noted for his synthesis of hemin (1881-1945)

   Paul John Flory

   United States chemist who developed methods for studying long-chain molecules (1910-1985)

   Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac

   French chemist and physicist who first isolated boron and who formulated the law describing the behavior of gases under constant pressure (1778-1850)

   Josiah Willard Gibbs

   United States chemist (1839-1903)

   Fritz Haber

   German chemist noted for the synthetic production of ammonia from the nitrogen in air (1868-1934)

   Otto Hahn

   German chemist who was co-discoverer with Lise Meitner of nuclear fission (1879-1968)

   Charles Martin Hall

   United States chemist who developed an economical method of producing aluminum from bauxite (1863-1914)

   Odd Hassel

   Norwegian chemist noted for his research on organic molecules (1897-1981)

   William Henry

   English chemist who studied the quantities of gas absorbed by water at different temperatures and under different pressures (1775-1836)

   George Charles Hevesy de Hevesy

   Hungarian chemist who studied radioisotopes and was one of the discoverers of the element hafnium (1885-1966)

   Joroslav Heyrovsky

   Czechoslovakian chemist who developed polarography (1890-1967)

   Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin

   English chemist (born in Egypt) who used crystallography to study the structure of organic compounds (1910-1994)

   Roald Hoffmann

   United States chemist (born in Poland) who used quantum mechanics to understand chemical reactions (born in 1937)

   August Wilhelm von Hoffmann

   German chemist (1818-1892)

   Friedrich August Kekule von Stradonitz

   German chemist remembered for his discovery of the ring structure of benzene (1829-1896)

   Martin Heinrich Klaproth

   German chemist who pioneered analytical chemistry and discovered three new elements (1743-1817)

   Sir Harold Walter Kroto

   British chemist who with Robert Curl and Richard Smalley discovered fullerenes and opened a new branch of chemistry (born in 1939)

   Richard Kuhn

   Austrian chemist who did research on carotenoids and vitamins (1900-1967)

   Irving Langmuir

   United States chemist who studied surface chemistry and developed the gas-filled tungsten lamp and worked on high temperature electrical discharges (1881-1957)

   Antoine Laurent Lavoisier

   French chemist known as the father of modern chemistry; discovered oxygen and disproved the theory of phlogiston (1743-1794)

   Henry le Chatelier

   French chemist who formulated Le Chatelier's principle (1850-1936)

   Willard Frank Libby

   United States chemist who developed a method of radiocarbon dating (1908-1980)

   William Nunn Lipscom Jr.

   United States chemist noted for his theories of molecular structure (born in 1919)

   Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleyev

   Russian chemist who developed a periodic table of the chemical elements and predicted the discovery of several new elements (1834-1907)

   Edward Williams Morley

   United States chemist and physicist who collaborated with Michelson in the Michelson-Morley experiment (1838-1923)

   Carl Gustaf Mossander

   Swedish chemist who discovered rare earth elements (1797-1858)

   Paul Hermann Muller

   Swiss chemist who synthesized DDT and discovered its use as an insecticide (1899-1965)

   Giulio Natta

   Italian chemist noted for work on polymers (1903-1979)

   Walther Hermann Nernst

   German physicist and chemist who formulated the third law of thermodynamics (1864-1941)

   Alfred Bernhard Nobel

   Swedish chemist remembered for his invention of dynamite and for the bequest that created the Nobel prizes (1833-1896)

   Ronald George Wreyford Norrish

   English chemist (1897-1978)

   Lars Onsager

   United States chemist (born in Norway) noted for his work in thermodynamics (1903-1976)

   Wilhelm Ostwald

   German chemist (1853-1932)

   Louis Pasteur

   French chemist and biologist whose discovery that fermentation is caused by microorganisms resulted in the process of pasteurization (1822-1895)

   Linus Carl Pauling

   United States chemist who studied the nature of chemical bonding (1901-1994)

   Joseph Priestley

   English chemist who isolated many gases and discovered oxygen (independently of Scheele) (1733-1804)

   Tadeus Reichstein

   a Swiss chemist born in Poland; studied the hormones of the adrenal cortex

   Richard John Roberts

   United States biochemist (born in England) honored for his discovery that some genes contain introns (born in 1943)

   Sir Robert Robinson

   English chemist noted for his studies of molecular structures in plants (1886-1975)

   Daniel Rutherford

   British chemist who isolated nitrogen (1749-1819)

   Karl Wilhelm Scheele

   Swedish chemist (born in Germany) who discovered oxygen before Priestley did (1742-1786)

   Christian Friedrich Schonbein

   German chemist who discovered ozone and developed guncotton as a propellant in firearms (1799-1868)

   Glenn Theodore Seaborg

   United States chemist who was one of the discoverers of plutonium (1912-1999)

   Richard Errett Smalley

   American chemist who with Robert Curl and Harold Kroto discovered fullerenes and opened a new branch of chemistry (born in 1943)

   Frederick Soddy

   English chemist whose work on radioactive disintegration led to the discovery of isotopes (1877-1956)

   Ernest Solvay

   Belgian chemist who developed the Solvay process and built factories exploiting it (1838-1922)

   Soren Peter Lauritz Sorensen

   Danish chemist who devised the pH scale (1868-1939)

   Sir Alexander Robertus Todd

   Scottish chemist noted for his research into the structure of nucleic acids (born in 1907)

   Harold Clayton Urey

   United States chemist who discovered deuterium (1893-1981)

   Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson

   English chemist honored for his research on pollutants in car exhausts (born in 1921)

   Adolf Windaus

   German chemist who studied steroids and cholesterol and discovered histamine (1876-1959)

   William Hyde Wollaston

   English chemist and physicist who discovered palladium and rhodium and demonstrated that static and current electricity are the same (1766-1828)

   Robert Burns Woodward

   United States chemist honored for synthesizing complex organic compounds (1917-1979)

   Karl Waldemar Ziegler

   German chemist honored for his research on polymers (1898-1973)

   Richard Adolph Zsigmondy

   German chemist (born in Austria) honored for his research on colloidal solutions (1865-1929)

   types:

   biochemist

   someone with special training in biochemistry

   nuclear chemist, radiochemist

   a chemist who specializes in nuclear chemistry

   phytochemist

   a chemist who specializes in the chemistry of plants

   enzymologist

   a person who is trained in or engaged in enzymology

   type of:

   scientist

   a person with advanced knowledge of one or more sciences
2. noun

   a health professional trained in the art of preparing and dispensing drugs
   synonyms: apothecary, druggist, pharmacist, pill pusher, pill roller

   types:

   pharmaceutical chemist, pharmacologist

   someone trained in the science of drugs (their composition and uses and effects)

   type of:

   PCP, caregiver, health care provider, health professional, primary care provider

   a person who helps in identifying or preventing or treating illness or disability