Father of Chemistry: Most Common Answer
If you are asked to identify the Father of Chemistry for a homework assignment, your best answer probably is Antoine Lavoisier. Lavoisier wrote the book Elements of Chemistry (1787). He compiled the first complete (at that time) list of elements, discovered and named oxygen and hydrogen, helped develop the metric system, helped revise and standardize chemical nomenclature and discovered that matter retains its mass even when it changes forms.Another popular choice for the title of Father of Chemistry is Jabir ibn Hayyan, a Persian alchemist living around 800 AD who applied scientific principles to his studies.
Other people sometimes known as the Father of Modern Chemistry are Robert Boyle, Jöns Berzelius and John Dalton.
Other "Father of Chemistry" Scientists
Other scientists are called the Father of Chemistry or are noted in specific fields of chemistry:Father of Chemistry
| Subject | Name | Reason | |
| Father of Early Chemistry Father of Chemistry |
Jabir ibn Hayyan (Geber) | Introduced the experimental method to alchemy, circa 815. | |
| Father of Modern Chemistry | Antoine Lavoisier | Book: Elements of Chemistry (1787) | |
| Father of Modern Chemistry | Robert Boyle | Book: The Sceptical Chymist (1661) | |
| Father of Modern Chemistry | Jöns Berzelius | developed chemical nomenclature in the 1800s | |
| Father of Modern Chemistry | John Dalton | revived atomic theory | |
| Father of Early Atomic Theory | Democritus | founded atomism in cosmology | |
| Father of Atomic Theory Father of Modern Atomic Theory |
John Dalton | first to propose the atom as a building block of matter | |
| Father of Modern Atomic Theory | Father Roger Boscovich | described what came to be known as modern atomic theory, about a century before others formalized the theory | |
| Father of Nuclear Chemistry | Otto Hahn | Book: Applied Radiochemistry (1936) first person to split the atom (1938) Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering nuclear fission (1944) |
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| Father of the Periodic Table | Dmitri Mendeleev | arranged all the known elements in order of increasing atomic weight, according to periodic properties (1869) | |
| Father of Physical Chemistry | Hermann von Helmholtz | for his theories on thermodynamics, conservation of energy and electrodynamics | |
| Father of Physical Chemistry Founder of Chemical Thermodynamics |
Willard Gibbs | published the first unified body of theorems describing thermodynamics |
