Marcellin Berthelot
1827 – 1907 · aged 80
French chemist and politician (1827-1907)
- Born
- 25 Oct 1827 · former 7th arrondissement of Paris
- Died
- 18 Mar 1907 · Paris
Life timeline
Their life from birth to death. On the timeline, world events of the time are shown faintly.
- 25 Oct 1827BornBorn in former 7th arrondissement of Paris
- 1877AwardForeign Member of the Royal Society
- 1881 – 1907RoleIrremovable senator
- 1883AwardDavy Medal
- 1895 – 1896RoleMinister of Foreign Affairs
- 1900 – 1907RoleMember of the Académie française
- 1900AwardCopley Medal
- 1900RolePerpetual Secretary
- 18 Mar 1907DiedDied in Paris
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Meanwhile in the world
Major world events during their lifetime (1827 – 1907).
- 1853 – 1856Crimean War
- 1857 – 1858Indian Rebellion of 1857
- 1870 – 1871Franco-Prussian War
- 18961896 Summer Olympics
- 1898Spanish–American War
- 1904 – 1905Russo-Japanese War
Biography
Pierre Eugène Marcellin Berthelot (English: ber-tə-LOH, French: [pjɛʁ øʒɛn maʁsəlɛ̃ bɛʁtəlo]; 25 October 1827 – 18 March 1907) was a French chemist and Republican politician noted for the Thomsen–Berthelot principle of thermochemistry. He synthesized many organic compounds from inorganic substances, providing a large amount of counter-evidence to the theory of Jöns Jakob Berzelius that organic compounds required organisms in their synthesis.
Berthelot was convinced that chemical synthesis would revolutionize the food industry by the year 2000, and that synthesized foods would replace farms and pastures. "Why not", he asked, "if it proved cheaper and better to make the same materials than to grow them?"
He was considered "one of the most famous chemists in the world." Upon being appointed to the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs for the French government in 1895, he was considered "the most eminent living chemist" in France.
In 1901, he was elected as one of the "Forty Immortals" of the Académie Française.
He gave all his discoveries not only to the French government but to humanity.
Text from the Wikipedia article Marcellin Berthelot, CC BY-SA 4.0
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