Whether or not you think our obsession with celebrities has gone too far, you probably have one or two people you admire. They are the rock stars you would be tongue-tied around if you ever met them, or embarrassing yourself by sharing too much about all that their songs have meant to you.
Me? I’m a huge fan of the Allman Brothers, The Who, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, and Warren Zevon. They are my rock idols. But why am I telling you this? I was reading Chemical & Engineering News recently and noticed the Editor’s listing of “Chemists Who Rock.” The editorial borrowed the following list from the Chemical Heritage Foundation:
- Marie Curie (1867–1934)
2. Antoine Lavoisier (1743–94)
3. Joseph Priestley (1733–1804)
4. John Dalton (1766–1844)
5. Justus Liebig (1803–1873)
6. Friedrich Wöhler (1800–82)
7. Dmitri Mendeleev (1834–1907)
8. Emil Fischer (1852–1919)
9. Robert B. Woodward (1917–79)
10. Linus Pauling (1901–94)
After noting that there was no living chemist on the list, and arguing that Frederick Sanger should have made the cut, Bibiana Campos Seijo asked readers to identify living rock stars of chemistry.
This got me thinking about rock stars of filtration. Me, I’d put inventor Dr. David Pall, hydrogeologist Henry Darcy, civil engineer Claude-Louis Navier and mathematician George Gabriel Stokes on the list.
Who would you add? Let me know in the comments below! Let’s generate our own Top 10 for filtration.
George Washington Carver!
That’s a good one. Did you know TIME Magazine dubbed him the “Black Leonardo” back in 1941. A true Renaissance man.