List of chemists

This is a list of chemists. It should include those who have been important to the development or practice of chemistry. Their research or application has made significant contributions in the area of basic or applied chemistry.

A

 * Richard Abegg (1869–1910), German chemist
 * Frederick Abel (1827–1902), English chemist
 * Friedrich Accum (1769–1838), German chemist, advances in the field of gas lighting
 * Homer Burton Adkins (1892–1949), American chemist, known for work in hydrogenation of organic compounds
 * Peter Agre (born 1949), American chemist and doctor, 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Georgius Agricola (1494–1555), German scholar known as "the father of mineralogy"
 * Natalie Ahn, American chemist
 * Arthur Aikin (1773–1855), English chemist and mineralogist
 * Adrien Albert (1907–1989), Australian medicinal chemist
 * John Albery (1936–2013), English physical chemist
 * Kurt Alder (1902–1958), German chemist, 1950 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Jerome Alexander (1876–1959), American expert on the chemistry of colloids
 * Ivan Alimarin (1903-1989), Soviet chemist, one of the leaders of analytical chemistry in 20's century
 * Elmer Lucille Allen (born 1931), American chemist and ceramic artist
 * Heather C. Allen (born 1960), American chemist
 * Adah Almutairi (born 1976), American chemist
 * Sidney Altman (1939–2022), Canadian-American biologist, 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Faiza Al-Kharafi (born 1946), Kuwaiti chemist, academic and the first woman to head a major university in the Middle East
 * Lisa Alvarez-Cohen, American chemist
 * Gloria Long Anderson (born 1938), American chemist
 * Christian B. Anfinsen (1916–1995), 1972 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Angelo Angeli (1864–1931), Italian chemist
 * Octavio Augusto Ceva Antunes, Brazilian chemist
 * Anthony Joseph Arduengo, III (born 1952), American chemist
 * Johan August Arfwedson (1792–1841), Swedish chemist
 * Anton Eduard van Arkel (1893–1976), Dutch chemist
 * Svante Arrhenius (1859–1927), Swedish chemist, one of the founders of physical chemistry
 * Valerie Ashby (born 1965/1966), American chemist
 * Barbara Askins (born 1939), American chemist
 * Larned B. Asprey (1919–2005), American nuclear chemist
 * Alán Aspuru-Guzik (born 1976), computational chemist
 * Francis William Aston (1877–1945), 1922 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Karin Aurivillius (1920–1982), Swedish chemist and crystallographer
 * Amedeo Avogadro (1776–1856), Italian chemist and physicist, discovered Avogadro's law

B

 * Stephen Moulton Babcock (1843–1931), worked on the "single-grain experiment"
 * Myrtle Bachelder (1908–1997), American chemist noted for work on the Manhattan Project atomic bomb
 * Werner Emmanuel Bachmann (1901–1951), American chemist, known for work in steroids and RDX
 * Simone Badal-McCreath, Jamaican chemist
 * Leo Baekeland (1863–1944), Belgian-American chemist
 * Adolf von Baeyer (1835–1917), German chemist, 1905 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, synthesis of indigo
 * Piero Baglioni (born 1952), Italian chemist
 * Hendrik Willem Bakhuis Roozeboom (1854–1907), Dutch chemist
 * Alice Ball (1892–1916), African American chemist known for inventing an effective injectable treatment for leprosy
 * Emily Balskus (born 1980), American chemist and microbiologist
 * Zhenan Bao (born 1970), Chinese chemist known for developing technologies with organic field-effect transistors and organic semiconductors
 * Phil S. Baran (born 1977), American chemist known for synthesis, novel reactions and reagents
 * Coral Barbas, Spanish chemist
 * Allen J. Bard (born 1933), 2008 Wolf Prize in Chemistry
 * Vincenzo Barone (born 1952), Italian chemist
 * Neil Bartlett (1932–2008), English/Canadian/American chemist
 * Sir Derek Barton (1918–1998), 1969 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Fred Basolo (1920–2007), American inorganic chemist
 * Esther Batchelder (1897–1987), American chemist, educator and specialist in nutrition
 * Antoine Baumé (1728–1804), French chemist
 * Karl Bayer (1847–1904), Austrian chemist
 * Johann Joachim Becher (1635–1682), German who developed the phlogiston theory of combustion
 * Kathryn Beers, American polymer chemist
 * Friedrich Konrad Beilstein (1838–1906), German-Russian chemist, created Beilstein database
 * Joseph Achille Le Bel (1847–1930), French chemist, early work in stereochemistry
 * Angela Belcher, American chemist, materials scientist, and biological engineer
 * Irina Beletskaya (born 1933), Russian organometallic chemist
 * R. P. Bell (1907–1996), English physical chemist
 * Francesco Bellini (born 1947), research scientist, doctor in organic chemistry
 * Andrey Belozersky (1905–1972), biochemist, doctor in biological sciences
 * Ruth R. Benerito (1916–2013), American chemist known for inventions relating to textiles
 * Paul Berg (1926–2023), 1980 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Friedrich Bergius (1884–1949), 1931 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Helen M. Berman (born 1943), American chemist
 * Marcellin Berthelot (1827–1907), French chemist, important work in thermochemistry
 * Claude Louis Berthollet (1748–1822), French chemist
 * Carolyn R. Bertozzi (born 1966) American chemist, Stanford
 * Guy Bertrand (born 1952) French chemist, UCSD
 * Jöns Jakob Berzelius (1779–1848), Swedish chemist, coined the term "polymer" in 1833
 * Johannes Martin Bijvoet (1892–1980), Dutch chemist and crystallographer
 * Leonora Bilger (1893–1975), American chemist who studied nitrogenous compounds
 * Hazel Bishop (1906–1998), American chemist and cosmetics inventor
 * Katherine Bitting (1869–1937), Canadian and American food chemist for the United States Department of Agriculture and the National Canners Association
 * Joseph Black (1728–1799), Scottish chemist
 * Katharine Burr Blodgett (1898–1979), American surface chemist and physicist and inventor of nonreflective glass
 * Suzanne Blum (born 1978), American chemist
 * Katharine Blunt (1876–1954), American chemist and nutritionist focusing on home economics, food chemistry and nutrition
 * Herman Boerhaave (1668–1738) Dutch chemist, botanist, Christian humanist & physician, first to isolate urea from urine
 * Kristie Boering (born 1963), American chemist and Earth and planetary scientist
 * Olga Bogdanova (1896–1982), Soviet chemist
 * Dale L. Boger (born 1953), American organic and medicinal chemist
 * Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran (1838–1912), French chemist
 * Jan Boldingh (1915–2003), Dutch chemist
 * Alexander Borodin (1833–1887), Russian chemist and composer
 * Hans-Joachim Born (1909–1987), German radiochemist
 * Carl Bosch (1872–1940), German chemist
 * Octave Leopold Boudouard (1872–1923), French chemist who discovered the Boudouard reaction
 * Jean-Baptiste Boussingault (1802–1887), French chemist, agricultural chemistry
 * E. J. Bowen (1898–1980), English physical chemist
 * Humphry Bowen (1929–2001), English analytical chemist
 * Paul D. Boyer (1918–2018), 1997 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Robert Boyer (1909–1989), employee of Henry Ford focus on soybean use.
 * Robert Boyle (1627–1691), Irish-English pioneer of modern chemistry
 * Henri Braconnot (1780–1855), French chemist and pharmacist
 * Henning Brand (c. 1630–c.1692 or c. 1710), German chemist, discovered phosphorus
 * Mary Bidwell Breed (1870–1949), American chemist focusing on aromatic acids, first woman dean of Indiana University
 * Ronald Breslow (1931–2017), American organic chemist
 * Alan Brisdon, British chemist
 * Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted (1879–1947), Danish chemist
 * Herbert C. Brown (1912–2004), 1979 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Jeannette Brown (born 1934), American organic medicinal chemist, historian, and author
 * Jeanette Grasselli Brown (born 1928), American analytical chemist and spectroscopist
 * Rachel Fuller Brown (1898–1980), American chemist who co-developed the first useful antifungal antibiotic
 * Eduard Buchner (1860–1917), 1907 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Stephen L. Buchwald (born 1955), American Chemist, Organic Chemistry, co-discoverer of Palladium-catalyzed C-N bond formation Buchwald–Hartwig amination
 * Mary Van Rensselaer Buell (1893–1969), American chemist who did early research in nutrition and physiological chemistry
 * Kathryn Bullock (born 1945), American chemist who co-developed valve-regulated lead-acid batteries
 * Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (1811–1899), German inventor, chemist, discovered the elements caesium and rubidium with Gustav Kirchhoff and invented the Bunsen burner
 * Jeanne Burbank (1915–2002), American chemist who developed lead-acid and silver-zinc batteries for submarines at the United States Naval Research Laboratory
 * Stephanie Burns (born 1955), American organosilicon chemist and past honorary president of Society of Chemical Industry
 * William Merriam Burton (1865–1954), American chemist, developed the first thermal cracking process for crude oil
 * Adolf Butenandt (1903–1995), 1939 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Alison Butler, American bioinorganic chemist and metallobiochemist
 * Aleksandr Butlerov (1828–1886), Russian chemist, discovered the formose reaction

C

 * Mary Letitia Caldwell (1890–1972), American chemist who developed a method for purifying crystalline porcine pancreatic amylase
 * Melvin Calvin (1911–1997), American chemist, winner of 1961 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Allison A. Campbell (born 1963), American chemist studying biomineralization, biomimetics and biomaterials
 * Constantin Cândea (1887–1971), Romanian chemist
 * Stanislao Cannizzaro (1826–1910), Italian chemist, postulated the Cannizzaro reaction
 * Georg Ludwig Carius (1829–1875), German chemist
 * Heinrich Caro (1834–1910), German chemist
 * Wallace Carothers (1896–1937), American chemist, known for the discovery of nylon
 * Emma P. Carr (1880–1972), American spectroscopist
 * Marjorie Constance Caserio (1929–2021), American chemist, winner of the American Chemical Society's Garvan Medal
 * Marta Catellani, Italian chemist, discovered the Catellani reaction
 * Henry Cavendish (1731–1810), British scientist
 * Elena Ceaușescu (1916–1989), Romanian communist politician
 * Thomas Cech (born 1947), 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Martin Chalfie (born 1947), 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Michelle Chang (born 1977), American chemist, Professor of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley
 * Yves Chauvin (1930–2015), 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Michel Eugėne Chevreul (1786–1889), French chemist, designed an early form of soap, lived to be 102
 * Christine S. Chow, American chemist
 * Aaron Ciechanover (born 1947), 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Giacomo Luigi Ciamician (1857–1922) Italian chemist, father of the solar panel
 * G. Marius Clore FRS (born 1955), American chemist, known for foundational work in three-dimensional protein and nucleic acid structure determination by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy
 * Edward L. Cochran (born 1929), American chemist, known for pioneering studies on the nature of free radicals
 * Ernst Cohen (1869–1944), Dutch chemist (murdered in Auschwitz)
 * Mildred Cohn (1913–2009), American chemist who studied chemical reactions within animal cells
 * David Collison, British chemist
 * Vicki Colvin (born 1965), Director of the Centre for Biomedical Engineering at Brown University
 * James Bryant Conant (1893–1978), American organic chemist, Priestley Medal 1944
 * Elias James Corey (born 1928), American organic chemist, winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Robert Corey (1897–1971), American biochemist
 * Carl Ferdinand Cori (1896–1984), Czech biochemist, Nobel Prize in medicine 1947
 * Gerty Cori (1896–1957), American biochemist, Nobel Prize in medicine 1947
 * Charles D. Coryell (1912–1971), American chemist, co-discovered the element promethium
 * John Cornforth (1917–2013), Australian winner of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Brigid Cotter (1921–1978), Irish chemist and barrister
 * Frank Albert Cotton (1930–2007), 2000 Wolf Prize in Chemistry
 * Charles Coulson (1910–1974), British theoretical chemist
 * Archibald Scott Couper (1831–1892), English chemist, further developed Tetravalence
 * James Crafts (1839–1917), American chemist, developer of Friedel–Crafts reaction
 * Donald J. Cram (1919–2001), American chemist, winner of the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * William Crookes (1832–1919), British chemist, discovered the element thallium
 * Alexander Crum Brown (1838–1922), Scottish organic chemist
 * Paul J. Crutzen (1933–2021), Dutch chemist, winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Ana Maria Cuervo (born 1966), Spanish-American physician, researcher, and cell biologist
 * Marie Curie (1867–1934), Polish radiation physicist, 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics, 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Pierre Curie (1859–1906), 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics
 * Robert Curl (1933–2022), American chemist, winner of 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Theodor Curtius (1857–1928), German chemist
 * Emil Czyrniański (1824–1888), Polish chemist

D

 * Jeff Dahn (born 1957), American materials chemist noted for significant contributions to lithium-ion batteries
 * John Dalton (1766–1844), physicist and pioneer of the atomic theory
 * Marie Maynard Daly (1921–2003), American biochemist and the first African American woman in the United States to earn a PhD in chemistry
 * Carl Peter Henrik Dam (1895–1976), Danish biochemist, winner of the 1943 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
 * Vincenzo, Count Dandolo (1758–1819), Italian nobleman and chemist
 * Samuel J. Danishefsky (born 1936), American organic chemist, natural product Total synthesis, 1995/6 Wolf Prize in Chemistry
 * Humphry Davy (1778–1829), British chemist, discovered several alkaline earth metals
 * Raymond Davis, Jr. (1914–2006), American physical chemist
 * Serena DeBeer (born 1973, American chemist and director of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion
 * Peter Debye (1884–1966), Dutch chemist, winner of the 1936 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Johann Deisenhofer (born 1943), 1988 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Margarita del Val (born 1959), Spanish chemist, immunologist, and virologist
 * Nathalie Demassieux (1884–1961), French mineral chemist and academic
 * Gautam Radhakrishna Desiraju (born 1952), Indian chemist considered father of crystal engineering
 * James Dewar (1842–1923), British chemist and physicist
 * François Diederich (1952–2020), Luxembourg chemist
 * Otto Diels (1876–1954), German chemist, winner of the 1950 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Robert Dirks (1978–2015), American computational chemist
 * Martha Doan (1872–1960), American chemist who studied thallium compounds
 * William von Eggers Doering (1917–2011), American chemist
 * Edward Doisy (1893–1986), American biochemist, winner of the 1943 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
 * Davorin Dolar (1921–2005), chemist from University of Ljubljana
 * Vy Maria Dong (born 1976), American chemist who studies enantioselective catalysis and natural product synthesis
 * David Adriaan van Dorp (1915–1995), Dutch chemist
 * Israel Dostrovsky (1918–2010), Russian (Ukraine)-born Israeli physical chemist, fifth president of the Weizmann Institute of Science
 * Herbert Henry Dow (1866–1930), American industrial chemist, known for bromine extraction
 * Cornelius Drebbel (1572–1633), Dutch inventor, alchemist and chemist
 * Vratislav Ducháček (1941–2018), Czech chemist
 * Carl Duisberg (1861–1935), German chemist, early administrative industrial chemist
 * Jean Baptiste Dumas (1800–1884), French chemist, work on atomic weights
 * Helen Dyer (1895–1998), American biochemist and early cancer researcher

E

 * Sandra Eaton, American chemist notable for work on electron paramagnetic resonance
 * Eilaf Egap, American chemist
 * Paul Ehrlich (1854–1915), German chemist, winner of the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
 * Arthur Eichengrün (1867–1949), German chemist
 * Manfred Eigen (1927–2019), German chemist, winner of the 1967 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Mostafa El-Sayed (born 1933), Egyptian-American physical chemist
 * Fausto Elhuyar (1755–1833), Spanish chemist, discoverer of tungsten
 * Lorne Elias, Canadian chemist, inventor of the explosives vapour detector EVD-1
 * Gertrude B. Elion (1918–1999), American biochemist and recipient of the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
 * Conrad Elvehjem (1901–1962), American biochemist, discovered niacin
 * Harry Julius Emeléus (1903–1993), British inorganic chemist
 * Gladys Anderson Emerson (1903–1984), American chemist and early nutritionist, and the first person to isolate Vitamin E
 * Emil Erlenmeyer (1825–1909), German chemist
 * Richard R. Ernst (1933–2021), 1991 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Gerhard Ertl (born 1936), German physical chemist, 2007 Nobel prize in chemistry
 * Margaret C. Etter (1943–1992), American chemist and developer of solid state chemistry for crystalline organic compounds
 * Hans von Euler-Chelpin (1873–1964), Swedish chemist, winner of the 1929 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Henry Eyring (1901–1981), Mexican-American theoretical chemist

F

 * Kazimierz Fajans (1887–1975), Polish-American physical chemist
 * Michael Faraday (1791–1867), chemist and physicist, discovered Benzene
 * Hermann von Fehling (1812–1885), German chemist
 * John Bennett Fenn (1917–2010), 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Enrico Fermi (1901–1954), Nuclear chemist and elementary particle physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics 1938
 * Mary Peters Fieser (1909–1997), American chemist and author of chemistry books
 * Barbara J. Finlayson-Pitts, Canadian-American atmospheric chemist
 * Hermann Emil Fischer (1852–1919), 1902 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, (actual name Hermann Emil Fischer, see below) not to be confused with:
 * Franz Joseph Emil Fischer (1877–1947), German chemist, co-discovered the Fischer–Tropsch process
 * Emily V. Fischer (born 1979/1980), American chemist notable for work on the WE-CAN project and on peroxyacetyl nitrate
 * Ernst Gottfried Fischer (1754–1831), German chemist
 * Ernst Otto Fischer (1918–2007), German chemist, 1973 Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner
 * Hans Fischer (1881–1945), German organic chemist, 1930 Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner
 * Nellie Ivy Fisher (1907–1995), London-born industrial chemist
 * Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig (1835–1910), German chemist, co-discovered Wurtz–Fittig reaction
 * Edith M. Flanigen (born 1929), American chemist known for synthesizing emeralds and zeolites
 * Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy (1775–1809), co-discovered the element Iridium and developed modern chemical notation
 * Nicolas Flamel (c. 1330–1418), French alchemist
 * Paul Flory (1910–1985), 1974 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Maria Forsyth, Australian researcher, new plastic materials for batteries
 * Margaret D. Foster (1895–1970), Manhattan Project chemist and the first female chemist to work for the United States Geological Survey
 * Joanna Fowler (born 1942), American neural chemist
 * Michelle Francl, American computational chemist
 * Edward Frankland (1825–1899), English chemist, originated the concept of valence
 * Rosalind Franklin (1920–1958), British chemist and crystallographer
 * Katherine Franz (born 1972), American chemist noted for work in metal ion coordination in biological systems
 * Herman Frasch (1851–1914), German mining engineer and inventor, pioneered the Frasch process
 * Bertram Fraser-Reid (1934–2020), Jamaican synthetic organic chemist who developed the armed-disarmed principle in glycosylation chemistry. He constructed the largest ever synthetic hetero-oligosaccharide without the use of automated methods.
 * Helen Murray Free (1923–2021), American chemist who developed self-testing systems for diabetes
 * Carl Remigius Fresenius (1818–1897), German chemist
 * Ida Freund (1863–1914), first woman university chemistry lecturer in the UK
 * Charles Friedel (1832–1899), French chemist, developer of Friedel–Crafts reaction
 * Alexander Naumovich Frumkin (1895–1976), electrochemist and chemist
 * Kenichi Fukui (1918–1998), 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Elizabeth Fulhame (18th–19th centuries), British chemist, pioneer in the study of catalysis
 * Vera Furness (1921–2002), English chemist and industrial manager

G

 * Johan Gadolin (1760–1852), Finnish chemist
 * Merrill Garnett (born 1930), American biochemist
 * Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (1778–1850), French chemist and physicist, discovered the Gay-Lussac law
 * Charles Frédéric Gerhardt (1816–1856), French chemist, synthesized acetylsalicylic acid
 * Jnan Chandra Ghosh (1894–1959), Indian chemist, development of anomaly of strong electrolytes and the dissociation - ionization theory.
 * William Giauque (1895–1982), 1949 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839–1903), American engineer, chemist and physicist
 * Walter Gilbert (born 1932), 1980 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Cornelia Gillyard (born 1941), codirector of the National Science Foundation's Research in Chemistry for Minority Scholars Program
 * Henry Gilman (1893–1986), American chemist, discovered the Gilman reagent
 * Judith Giordan, American chemist and professor; 2014 American Chemical Society Henry Whalen Award
 * Johann Rudolf Glauber (1604–1670), Dutch-German alchemist and chemist
 * Lawrence E. Glendenin (1918–2008), American chemist, co-discovered the element promethium
 * Leopold Gmelin (1788–1853), German chemist, discovered potassium ferricyanide
 * Theodore Nicolas Gobley (1811–1874), French chemist, pioneer in brain tissues analysis, discoverer of lecithin
 * Adolph Goetting (1851–1929), German chemist, worked for California Perfume Company
 * Sulamith Goldhaber (1923–1965), Austrian-American chemist, high-energy physicist, and molecular spectroscopist
 * Victor Goldschmidt (1888–1947), father of modern geochemistry
 * Moses Gomberg (1866–1947), Russian-American chemist, known for pioneering work in radical chemistry
 * Mary L. Good (1931–2019), American inorganic chemist
 * David van Goorle also called Gorlaeus (1591–1612), Dutch chemist, one of the first modern atomists
 * Loney Gordon (1915–1999), American chemist who assisted in creating the pertussis vaccine
 * Carl Gräbe (1841–1927), German chemist, discovered the dye alizarin
 * Thomas Graham (1805–1869), Scottish chemist, dialysis and diffusion
 * Harry B. Gray (born 1935), 2004 Wolf Prize in Chemistry
 * Martha Greenblatt (born 1941), American solid state inorganic chemist, 2003 American Chemical Society's Garvan-Olin Medal
 * Bettye Washington Greene (1935–1995), American researcher on latex and polymers
 * Sandra C. Greer (born 1945), American chemist notable for work on thermodynamics of fluids, polymer solutions and phase transitions
 * François Auguste Victor Grignard (1871–1935), 1912 Nobel Prize in Chemistry corecipient
 * Robert H. Grubbs (1942–2021), 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

H

 * Fritz Haber (1868–1934), German chemist, 1918 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, father of the Haber process
 * Dorothy Hahn (1876–1950), early American organic chemist and ultraviolet spectroscopist
 * Otto Hahn (1879–1968), German chemist, discoverer of nuclear fission, 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, father of nuclear chemistry
 * Sossina M. Haile (born 1966), American chemist notable for developing the first solid acid fuel cells
 * Naomi Halas, American biochemist focusing on nanoshells and nanophotonics
 * John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (1892–1962), British and Indian biochemist, geneticist and evolutionary biologist
 * John Scott Haldane (1860–1936), British biochemist
 * Charles Martin Hall (1863–1914), American chemist, famous for Hall-Héroult process
 * Frances Mary Hamer (1894–1980), British chemist who specialized in photographic sensitization compounds
 * George S. Hammond (1921–2005), American chemist, famous for Hammond's postulate
 * Arthur Harden (1865–1940), English biochemist and winner of the shared Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1929
 * Elizabeth Hardy (1915–2008), American chemist and discoverer of the Cope rearrangement
 * Anna J. Harrison (1912–1998), first female President of the American Chemical Society
 * Odd Hassel (1897–1981), Norwegian chemist 1969 Nobel Prize in chemistry
 * Charles Hatchett (1765–1847), English chemist who discovered niobium
 * Herbert A. Hauptman (1917–2011), 1985 Nobel Prize in chemistry
 * Robert Havemann (1910–1982), German chemist
 * Walter Hawkins (1911–1992), African American chemist, widely regarded as a pioneer of polymer chemistry. Co-invented a polymer with antioxidants that prevented deterioration even in extreme temperatures.
 * Walter Haworth (1883–1950), 1937 Nobel Prize in chemistry
 * Sam Hay, New Zealand chemist
 * Alma Levant Hayden (1927–1967), American spectrophotometer at the National Institutes of Health
 * Jabir Ibn Hayyan (722–804), Persian-Arab chemist and alchemist
 * Clayton Heathcock (born 1936), American chemist
 * Alan J. Heeger (1936–2023), 2000 Nobel Prize in chemistry
 * Jan Baptist van Helmont (1579–1644), The founder of pneumatic chemistry
 * Dudley R. Herschbach (born 1932), American chemist, 1986 Nobel Prize in chemistry
 * Avram Hershko (born 1937), 2004 Nobel Prize in chemistry
 * Charles Herty (1867–1938), American chemist
 * Gerhard Herzberg (1904–1999), German-Canadian chemist, 1971 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Germain Henri Hess (1802–1850), Swiss-born Russian chemist, namesake of Hess's Law
 * George de Hevesy (1885–1966), Hungarian born chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in chemistry 1943
 * Jaroslav Heyrovský (1890–1967), Czech chemist, 1959 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Evelyn Hickmans (1883–1972), British biochemist, pioneer in treatment of phenylketonuria
 * Joel Hildebrand (1881–1983), American educator and chemist specializing in liquids and nonelectrolyte solutions
 * Mary Elliott Hill (1907–1969), American chemist who developed analytic methodology for ultraviolet light
 * Cyril Norman Hinshelwood (1897–1967), English physical chemist and winner of the shared Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1956
 * Gladys Lounsbury Hobby (1910–1993), American microbiologist known for development and early understanding of antibiotics
 * Dorothy Hodgkin (1910–1994), 1964 Nobel Prize in chemistry
 * Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff (1852–1911), Dutch physical chemist, 1901 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Albert Hofmann (1906–2008), Swiss chemist, synthesized Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD)
 * August Wilhelm Hofmann (1818–1892), German chemist, first to isolate sorbic acid
 * Darleane C. Hoffman (born 1926), American nuclear chemist
 * Friedrich Hoffmann (1660–1742), physician and chemist
 * Roald Hoffmann (born 1937), Polish-born American chemist, 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Mei Hong (born 1970), Chinese-American biophysical chemist
 * Frederick Gowland Hopkins (1861–1947), British biochemist, known for discovery of vitamins, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1929
 * Marjorie G. Horning (1917–2020), American biochemist and pioneer of chromatography
 * Linda Hsieh-Wilson, American chemist, California Institute of Technology
 * Heinrich Hubert Maria Josef Houben (1875–1940), German organic chemist
 * Coenraad Johannes van Houten (1801–1887), Dutch chemist and chocolate maker, invented cocoa powder
 * Amir H. Hoveyda, U.S.-based chemist working in asymmetric catalysis
 * Benjamin Hsiao (born 1958), Asian American chemist at Stony Brook University, Fellow of the American Physical Society, Fellow of the American Chemical Society, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
 * Marcia Huber, American chemical engineer and 2005 Department of Commerce Bronze Medal winner
 * Robert Huber (born 1937), 1988 Nobel Prize in chemistry
 * Catherine T. Hunt (born 1955), American chemist, served as president of the American Chemical Society and was a Dow Chemical Company director

I

 * Sir Christopher Kelk Ingold (1893–1970), English chemist
 * Vladimir Ipatieff (1867–1952), Russian-American chemist, known for organic synthesis

J

 * Nancy B. Jackson (1956–2022), American chemist
 * Marilyn E. Jacox (1929–2013), American chemist and National Institute of Standards and Technology fellow
 * Hope Jahren (born 1969), American chemist and isotope analyst
 * Paul Janssen (1926–2003), Belgian founder of Janssen Pharmaceutica
 * Allene Jeanes (1906–1995), American chemist who developed Dextran to replace plasma in the Korean War
 * Frédéric Joliot-Curie (1900–1958), French chemist and physicist, 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Irène Joliot-Curie (1897–1956), French chemist and physicist, 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Madeleine M. Joullié (born 1927), French-American-Brazilian organic chemist and first woman to have an American tenure track position in organic chemistry
 * Percy Lavon Julian (1899–1975), African American organic chemist who was a pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants. He was the first to synthesize the natural product physostigmine.

K

 * Henri B. Kagan (born 1930), 2001 Wolf Prize in Chemistry
 * Isabella Karle (1921–2017), American chemist instrumental for extracting plutonium chloride from a mixture containing plutonium oxide
 * Jerome Karle (1918–2013), 1985 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Paul Karrer (1889–1971), 1937 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Karl Wilhelm Gottlob Kastner (1783–1857)
 * Alan R. Katritzky (1928–2014), Pioneer in heterocyclic chemistry
 * Joyce Jacobson Kaufman (1929–2016), American chemist and inventor of conformational topology
 * Melinda H. Keefe, American chemist and research and development director at the Dow Chemical Company
 * August Kekulé (1829–1896), German organic chemist
 * Sinah Estelle Kelley (1916–1982), American chemist who helped pioneer mass production of penicillin
 * John Kendrew (1917–1997), 1962 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Ann Kiessling (born 1942), American chemist and reproductive biologist
 * Petrus Jacobus Kipp (1808–1864), Dutch chemist, inventor of Kipp-generator
 * Johan Kjeldahl (1849–1900), Danish chemist, head chemist at Carlsberg Brewery, methods still in use
 * Martin Heinrich Klaproth (1743–1817), German chemist, discovered the element uranium
 * Trevor Kletz (1922–2013), British promoter of industrial safety
 * Aaron Klug (1926–2018), winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Emil Knoevenagel (1865–1921)
 * Jeremy Randall Knowles (1935–2008), British chemist
 * William Standish Knowles (1917–2012), 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Walter Kohn (1923–2016), 1998 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe (1818–1884), German chemist known for Kolbe nitrile synthesis
 * Izaak Kolthoff (1894–1993), Dutch-American chemist, the "Father of Analytical Chemistry"
 * Roger D. Kornberg (born 1947), 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Teresa Kowalska (1946–2023), Polish chemist, co-founder of Acta Chromatographia
 * Hans A. Krebs (1900–1981), German biochemist, work on metabolic cycles
 * Harold Kroto (1939–2016), English chemist, 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Richard Kuhn (1900–1967), 1938 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Eugenia Kumacheva, polymer chemist
 * Theodore Kuwana, (1931–2022), American chemist, founder of the field of spectroelectrochemistry

L

 * Irving Langmuir (1881–1957), chemist, physicist, 1932 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Auguste Laurent (1807–1853), French chemist, discovered anthracene
 * Paul Lauterbur (1929–2007), American chemist
 * Antoine Lavoisier (1743–1794), French pioneer chemist
 * Nicolas Leblanc (1742–1806), French chemist and surgeon
 * Henri Louis Le Chatelier (1850–1936)
 * Yuan T. Lee (born 1936), winner of 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Valery Legasov (1936–1988), Soviet inorganic chemist known for his position as head of the Chernobyl Commission for the Chernobyl Disaster
 * Jean-Marie Lehn (born 1939), French chemist, shared 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Luis Federico Leloir (1906–1987), Argentine biochemist and winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Raymond Lemieux (1920–2000), 1999 Wolf Prize in Chemistry
 * Gilbert Newton Lewis (1875–1946), American chemist and first Dean of the Berkeley College of Chemistry
 * Andreas Libavius (1555–1616), German doctor and chemist
 * Carl Theodore Liebermann (1842–1914), German chemist, known for synthesis of alizarin
 * Willard Libby (1908–1980), American chemist, winner of 1960 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Justus von Liebig (1803–1873), German inventor and pioneer in agricultural and biological chemistry
 * Karl Paul Link (1901–1978), American biochemist, discovered the anticoagulant warfarin
 * John Wilfrid Linnett (1913–1975), British chemist at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
 * William Lipscomb (1919–2011), 1976 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister (1827–1912), English surgeon
 * Arthur H. Livermore (1915–2009), science educator and chemist
 * Mikhail Lomonosov (1711–1765), Russian scientist, anticipated the kinetic-molecular theory by 100 years
 * H. Christopher Longuet-Higgins (1923–2004), British chemist
 * Janis Louie, (born 1971) American chemist
 * Martin Lowry (1874–1936), British chemist
 * Sima Lozanić (1847–1935), Serbian chemist
 * Alfred Lucas (1867–1945), Egypt-based English chemist and archaeologist
 * Ignacy Łukasiewicz (1802–1882), Polish pharmacist

M

 * Alan MacDiarmid (1927–2007), 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Marie Curie (1867–1934), 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Carolina Henriette Mac Gillavry (1904–1993), Dutch chemist and crystallographer
 * Roderick MacKinnon (born 1956), 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Pierre Macquer (1718–1784), influential French chemist
 * Rudolph A. Marcus (born 1923), 1992 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Jacob A. Marinsky (1918–2005), American chemist, co-discovered the element promethium
 * Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac (1817–1894), Swiss chemist, discovered ytterbium and co-discovered gadolinium
 * Vladimir Vasilevich Markovnikov (1838–1904)
 * Tobin J. Marks (born 1944), American inorganic chemist and materials scientist
 * Alan G. Marshall (born 1944), American chemist, co-inventor of Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometry
 * Archer John Porter Martin (1910–2002), 1952 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Martinus van Marum (1750–1837), Dutch chemist
 * Elmer McCollum (1879–1967), American biochemist, known for work of diet on health
 * Edwin McMillan (1907–1991), 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Lise Meitner (1878–1968), German physicist
 * Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev (1834–1907), Russian chemist, creator of the Periodic table of elements
 * John Mercer (1791–1866), chemist and industrialist
 * Robert Bruce Merrifield (1921–2006), solid-phase chemist, 1984 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Julius Lothar Meyer (1830–1895), German chemist, important work on The periodic table of elements; not to be confused with:
 * Viktor Meyer (1848–1897)
 * Dan Meyerstein (born 1938), Israeli chemist and president of Ariel University
 * August Michaelis (1847–1916), German chemist
 * Leonor Michaelis (1875–1949), German biochemist and physical chemist
 * Hartmut Michel (born 1948), 1988 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Huang Minlon (1889–1979), Chinese chemist
 * Stanley Miller (1930–2007), American chemist, best known for the Miller–Urey experiment
 * Eugène Millon (1812–1867), French chemist
 * David P. Mills, British chemist
 * Luis E. Miramontes (1925–2004), co-inventor of the combined oral contraceptive pill
 * Peter D. Mitchell (1920–1992), 1978 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * William A. Mitchell (1911–2004), key inventor behind Pop Rocks, Tang, and Kool Whip
 * Eilhardt Mitscherlich (1794–1863), German chemist, remembered for the law of isomorphism.
 * Alexander Mitscherlich (1836–1918), German chemist
 * Karl Friedrich Mohr (1806–1879), German chemist famous for first musings on the Conservation of energy
 * Henri Moissan (1852–1907), French chemist and the winner of the 1906 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Mario J. Molina (1943–2020), 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Jacques Monod (1910–1976), biochemist, winner of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1965
 * Jeffrey S. Moore (born 1961), American materials chemist
 * Peter Moore (born 1939), American biochemist, Sterling Professor of Chemistry at Yale University
 * Stanford Moore (1913–1982), 1972 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Hamilton Morris (born 1987), American chemist, creator and director of the television series Hamilton's Pharmacopeia
 * Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley (1887–1915), English physicist, discovered Moseley's law
 * Gerardus Johannes Mulder (1802–1880), Dutch organic chemist
 * Paul Müller (1899–1965), Swiss chemist, discovered DDT, won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1939
 * Robert S. Mulliken (1896–1986), American physicist, chemist, 1966 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Jnanendra Nath Mukherjee(1893-1983), Indian origin colloidal chemist
 * Kary Mullis (1944–2019), 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Earl Muetterties (1927–1984), American chemist
 * Catherine J. Murphy (born 1964), American chemist and materials scientist

N

 * Robert Nalbandyan (1937–2002), Armenian protein chemist
 * Sergey Nametkin, Soviet and Russian organic chemist
 * Louise Natrajan, British chemist
 * Giulio Natta (1903–1979), Italian chemist, 1963 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Costin Nenițescu (1902–1970), Romanian chemist
 * Antonio Neri (1576–1614), Florentine chemist and glassmaker
 * Walther Nernst (1864–1941), German chemist, 1920 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * John Alexander Reina Newlands (1837–1898), English analytical chemist
 * William Nicholson (1753–1815), English chemist
 * Kyriacos Costa Nicolaou (born 1946), Cypriot-American chemist
 * Julius Nieuwland (1878–1936), American chemist, work on synthetic rubber leading to neoprene
 * Mathias Nilsson, Swedish chemist
 * Alfred Nobel (1833–1896), Swedish chemist
 * Philiswa Nomngongo, South-African professor of Analytical Chemistry and the SARChI in nanotechnology for water
 * Ronald George Wreyford Norrish (1897–1978), 1967 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * John Howard Northrop (1891–1987), 1946 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Ryōji Noyori (born 1938), 2001 Wolf Prize in Chemistry, 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Ralph Nuzzo (born 1954), American chemist and materials scientist

O

 * George Andrew Olah (1927–2017), 1994 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Marilyn Olmstead (1943–2020), chemist, expert in small molecule crystallography
 * Fred Olsen (1891–1986), inventor of the ball propellant manufacturing process
 * Lars Onsager (1903–1976), physical chemist, 1968 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Tony Orchard (1941–2005), British inorganic chemist, photoelectron spectroscopist
 * Joan Oró (1923–2004), Catalan biochemist, one of his most important contributions was the prebiotic synthesis of the nucleobase adenine from hydrogen cyanide
 * Hans Christian Ørsted (1777–1851), first to isolate aluminium
 * Wilhelm Ostwald (1853–1932), 1909 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Larry E. Overman (born 1943), American organic chemist
 * Geoffrey Ozin (born 1943), materials chemist

P

 * Paracelsus (1493–1541), alchemist
 * Rudolph Pariser (1923–2021), theoretical and organic chemist
 * Robert G. Parr (1921–2017), theoretical chemist
 * Louis Pasteur (1822–1895), French biochemist, father of pasteurization
 * Linus Pauling (1901–1994), Nobel Prizes in chemistry and peace
 * Charles J. Pedersen (1904–1989), 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Eugène-Melchior Péligot (1811–1890), French chemist who isolated the uranium metal
 * William Henry Perkin (1838–1907), British organic chemist and inventor of mauveine (dye)
 * William Henry Perkin, Jr. (1860–1929), British organic chemist, son of Sir William Henry Perkin
 * Max Perutz (1914–2002), 1962 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Eva Philbin (1914–2005), Irish chemist
 * David Andrew Phoenix (born 1966), British biochemist
 * Georgy Pigulevsky (1888–1964), Russian chemist and biochemist
 * Roy J. Plunkett (1910–1994), discoverer of Teflon
 * John Charles Polanyi (born 1929), Canadian chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1986
 * John A. Pople (1925–2004), theoretical chemist, 1998 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Vera Vevstafievna Popova (1867–1896), one of the first female Russian chemists
 * George Porter (1920–2002), 1967 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Fritz Pregl (1869–1930), Slovene-German chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1923
 * Vladimir Prelog (1906–1998), 1975 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Joseph Priestley (1733–1804), no formal training as a scientist, discovered the element oxygen
 * Ilya Prigogine (1917–2003), 1977 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Joseph Louis Proust (1754–1826), discovered the Law of definite proportions
 * Evgenii Przhevalsky (1879-1953), Russian and Soviet chemist, father of analytical chemistry in USSR

R

 * Ronald T. Raines (born 1958), American chemist
 * Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (born 1952), 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * William Ramsay (1852–1916), Scottish chemist, 1904 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * C. N. R. Rao (born 1934), Indian chemist
 * François-Marie Raoult (1830–1901), French chemist, known for Raoult's law
 * Henry Rapoport (1918–2002), American chemist, UC Berkeley
 * William Sage Rapson (1912–1999), South African chemist and co-author of Gold Usage
 * Nil Ratan Dhar (1892–1986), Pioneering Indian soil chemist
 * Ken Raymond (born 1942), American inorganic and bioinorganic chemist, UC Berkeley
 * Prafulla Chandra Ray (born 1861), Indian chemist
 * Julius Rebek (born 1944), Hungarian American chemist
 * Charles Lee Reese (1862–1940), American chemist and Chemical Director of DuPont
 * Henri Victor Regnault (1810–1878), French chemist and physicist
 * Tadeus Reichstein (1897–1996), chemist, 1950 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
 * Rhazes (Razi) (865–925), Persian physician, philosopher and alchemist
 * Stuart A. Rice (born 1932), physical chemist
 * Ellen Swallow Richards (1842–1911), industrial and environmental chemist
 * Theodore William Richards (1868–1928), 1914 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Wim Richter (1946–2019), South Africa
 * Jeremias Benjamin Richter (1762–1807), German chemist, first used the term stoichiometry
 * Nikolaus Riehl (1901–1990), German chemist
 * Andrés Manuel del Río (1764–1849), Spanish-Mexican geochemist, discovered vanadium
 * Robert Robinson (1886–1975), British chemist,1947 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Pierre Jean Robiquet (1780–1840), French chemist, discovered caffeine, alizarin, cantharidin
 * Hillar Rootare (1928–2008), Estonian-American physical chemist
 * Irwin Rose (1926–2015), 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Guillaume-François Rouelle (1703–1770), French chemist
 * Hilaire-Marin Rouelle (1718–1779), French chemist
 * Frank Sherwood Rowland (1927–2012), 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Daniel Rutherford (1749–1819), Scottish chemist
 * Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937), New Zealand born chemist and nuclear physicist. Discovered the proton. Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1908
 * Leopold Ruzicka (Lavoslav Ružička) (1887–1976), 1939 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

S

 * Paul Sabatier (1854–1941), French chemist, 1912 Nobel Prize in Chemistry corecipient


 * Frederick Sanger (1918–2013), 1958 and 1980 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1742–1786), Swedish 18th century chemist, discovered numerous elements
 * Christian Friedrich Schönbein (1799–1868), German-Swiss chemist, invented the fuel cell, and discovered gun cotton and ozone
 * Stuart L. Schreiber (born 1956), American chemist, a pioneer in a field of chemical biology
 * Richard R. Schrock (born 1945), 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Peter Schultz (born 1956), American chemist
 * Glenn T. Seaborg (1912–1999), 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Nils Gabriel Sefström (1787–1845), chemist
 * Francesco Selmi (1817–1881), Italian chemist
 * Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov (1896–1986), physicist and chemist, 1956 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * T. R. Seshadri (1900–1975), Indian chemist, pioneer in plant chemistry
 * K. Barry Sharpless (born 1941), 2001 Wolf Prize in Chemistry, 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Dan Shechtman (born 1941), 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, discovered quasicrystals
 * Patsy O. Sherman (1930–2008), 12 US patents
 * John Sherwood (died 2020), British physical chemist
 * Nevil Vincent Sidgwick (1873–1952), English theoretical chemist, known for work in valency
 * Osamu Shimomura (1928–2018), 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Hideki Shirakawa (born 1936), 2000 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Alexander Shulgin (1925–2014), pioneer researcher in Psychopharmacology and Entheogens
 * Salimuzzaman Siddiqui (1897–1994), Pakistani chemist, pioneer in natural products chemistry
 * Oktay Sinanoglu (1935–2015), Turkish chemist
 * Joseph H. Simons (1897–1983), U.S. chemist, discoverer of fluorocarbons, used in gaseous diffusion of Uranium for Manhattan project
 * Jens Christian Skou (1918–2018), 1997 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Richard Smalley (1943–2005), 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Michael Smith (1932–2000), 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Ascanio Sobrero (1812–1888), Italian chemist, discoverer of nitroglycerin
 * Frederick Soddy (1877–1956), British chemist, 1921 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Susan Solomon (born 1956), American atmospheric chemist
 * Ernest Solvay (1838–1922), Belgian chemist and industrialist
 * S.P.L. Sørensen (1868–1939), Danish chemist
 * Gabor A. Somorjai (born 1935), 1998 Wolf Prize in Chemistry
 * Georg Ernst Stahl (1659–1734), Important work on fermentation
 * Wendell Meredith Stanley (1904–1971), 1946 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Jean Servais Stas (1813–1891), Belgian analytical chemist
 * Branko Stanovnik (born 1938), chemist
 * Hermann Staudinger (1881–1965), polymer chemist, 1953 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Harry Steenbock (1886–1967), American biochemist, work on ultraviolet irradiation
 * William Howard Stein (1911–1980), 1972 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Thomas A. Steitz (1940–2018), 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Douglas Stephan, Frustrated Lewis Pairs
 * Alfred Stock (1876–1946), German inorganic chemist, known for work in mercury poisoning
 * Brian Stoltz (born 1970), award-winning American organic chemist.
 * Fraser Stoddart (born 1942), Scottish chemist, a pioneer in the field of the mechanical bond
 * Molly Shoichet, award-winning Canadian biomedical engineer known for her work in tissue engineering. She is the only person to be a fellow of the three National Academies in Canada
 * F. Gordon A. Stone (1925–2011), British inorganic chemist
 * S. Donald Stookey (1915–2014), American glass and ceramic chemist
 * Gilbert Stork (1921–2017), 1995/6 Wolf Prize in Chemistry
 * Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz (1829–1896), German organic chemist, principal founder of chemical structure
 * Yellapragada Subbarow (1895-1948), Indian biochemist known for discovery of ATP and synthesis of many new ground breaking compounds
 * James B. Sumner (1887–1955), 1946 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Kenneth S. Suslick (born 1952), professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, known for optoelectronic nose
 * Edwin Sutermeister (1876–1958), American chemist, known for its work on papermaking
 * Theodor Svedberg (1884–1971), 1926 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Joseph Swan (1828–1914), English physicist, chemist and inventor
 * Frédéric Swarts (1866–1940), Belgian chemist, prepared the first chlorofluorocarbon compound
 * Richard Laurence Millington Synge (1914–1994), 1952 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

T

 * Koichi Tanaka (born 1959), 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Henry Taube (1915–2005), 1983 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Louis Jacques Thénard (1777–1857), French chemist, discovered hydrogen peroxide and Thenard's Blue
 * Sir Harold Warris Thompson (1908–1983), English physical chemist
 * J. J. Thomson (1856–1940), British physicist, Known in chemistry for discovery of isotopes
 * T. Don Tilley (born 1954), organometallic chemist
 * Arne Tiselius (1902–1971), 1948 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Max Tishler (1906–1989), 1970 Priestley Medal
 * Alexander R. Todd, Baron Todd (1907–1997), 1957 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Evangelista Torricelli (1608–1647), Italian physicist and chemist who invented the barometer, pupil of Galileo
 * Roger Y. Tsien (1952–2016), 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Mikhail Tsvet (1872–1919), Russian botanist, known for adsorption chromatography
 * Kristy Turner, British chemist

U

 * Georges Urbain (1872–1938), French chemist, discovered the element lutetium
 * Harold Clayton Urey (1893–1981), 1934 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

V

 * Lauri Vaska (1925–2015), Estonian/American chemist
 * Louis Nicolas Vauquelin (1763–1829), French pharmacist and chemist, Discovered the elements beryllium and chromium
 * Vincent du Vigneaud (1901–1978), 1955 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Artturi Ilmari Virtanen (1895–1973), chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
 * Max Volmer, Germany (1885–1965)
 * Alessandro Volta (1745–1827), Italian electrochemist, invented the voltaic cell
 * Alexander Vinogradov (1895-1975), Soviet geochemist

W

 * Johannes Diderik van der Waals (1837–1923), Dutch physicist
 * Sir James Walker (1863–1935), Scottish physical chemist
 * John E. Walker (born 1941), British chemist, 1997 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Otto Wallach (1847–1931), German chemist, 1910 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * John Warner (born 1962), American chemist, 2014 Perkin Medal, one of the "founders" of green chemistry
 * Alfred Werner (1866–1919), Swiss chemist, 1913 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Thomas Summers West (1927–2010), British analytical chemist
 * Peter Jaffrey Wheatley (1921–1997)
 * Chaim Weizmann (1874–1952), Russian chemist, developed the ABE-process
 * George M. Whitesides (born 1939), American chemist
 * John Rex Whinfield (1901–1966), British chemist, discovered polyester fibres
 * Otto Wichterle (1913–1998), Czech chemist, known for inventing modern contact lenses
 * Heinrich Otto Wieland (1877–1957), German chemist 1927 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Julius Wilbrand (1839–1906), inventor of TNT
 * Harvey W. Wiley (1844–1930), American chemist, pure food and drug advocate
 * Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson (1921–1996), 1973 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Alexander William Williamson (1824–1904), English chemist, famous for Williamson ether synthesis
 * Thomas Willson (1860–1915), Canadian chemist, discovered an economically efficient process for creating calcium carbide
 * Richard Willstätter (1872–1942), 1915 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus (1876–1959), 1928 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Günter Wirths (1911–2005), German chemist
 * Georg Wittig (1897–1987), German chemist, 1979 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Friedrich Wöhler (1800–1882), German chemist, best known for his synthesis of urea
 * William Hyde Wollaston (1766–1828), English chemist, discovered the elements palladium and rhodium
 * Robert B. Woodward (1917–1979), 1965 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Charles de Worms (1903–1979)
 * Charles-Adolphe Wurtz (1817–1884), Alsatian French chemist, discovered the Wurtz reaction
 * Kurt Wüthrich (born 1938), 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

X

 * Xiaoliang Sunney Xie (born 1962), chemist at Harvard University. A pioneer in the field of Single Molecule Microscopy and CARS (Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Spectroscopy) microscopy
 * Xie Yi (born 1967), Chinese chemist, member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Y

 * Ada Yonath (born 1939), 2006/7 Wolf Prize in Chemistry, 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Sabir Yunusov (1909–1995), Soviet chemist (alkaloids)

Z

 * Richard Zare (born 1939), 2005 Wolf Prize in Chemistry
 * Nikolay Zefirov (1935-2017), Russian and Soviet Organic and Medicinal Chemist
 * Nikolay Zelinsky (1861–1953), Russian and Soviet Organic chemist, inventor of the first effective gas mask (1915)
 * Ahmed H. Zewail (1946–2016), Egyptian, 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on femtochemistry
 * Karl Ziegler (1898–1973), 1963 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
 * Richard Adolf Zsigmondy (1865–1929), 1925 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Chemists famous in other areas

 * Marion Barry (1936–2014), Masters in Organic Chemistry, American politician
 * Alexander Borodin (1833–1887), Russian chemist and composer
 * Jerry Buss (1934–2013), PhD in Physical Chemistry, owner of the NBA LA Lakers and other sports franchises
 * Catherine Coleman (born 1960), American chemist and retired NASA astronaut who went on two Space Shuttle missions
 * Emmanuel Dongala (born 1941), Congolese chemist and novelist
 * Elizabeth J. Feinler (born 1931), American information scientist and past director of the Network Information Systems Center at the Stanford Research Institute
 * Marye Anne Fox (1947–2021), American chemist and university chancellor
 * Dolph Lundgren (born 1957), Masters in Chemistry, Swedish actor
 * Primo Levi (1919–1987), resistance fighter, chemist and novelist
 * Mikhail Lomonosov (1711–1765), Russian chemist, historian, philologist, and poet
 * Angela Merkel (born 1954), doctorate in quantum chemistry, Chancellor of Germany (2005–2021)
 * Gaspard Monge (1746–1818), invented descriptive geometry
 * Francis Muguet (1955–2009), advocate of open information access
 * Edward W. Morley (1838–1923), performed the Michelson–Morley experiment
 * Knute Rockne (1888–1931), head football coach of Notre Dame
 * Elio Di Rupo (born 1951), Prime Minister of Belgium
 * Israel Shahak (1933–2001)
 * Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1979–1990), research chemist at BX Plastics