







The Most Famous
Chemists from France
This page contains a list of the greatest Frenchs Chemists. The pantheon dataset contains 602 Chemists, 64 of which were born in France. This makes France the birth place of the 4th most number of Chemists behind Germany and United Kingdom.
Top 10 French Chemists
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Frenchs Chemists of all time. This list of famous Frenchs Chemists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography's online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Frenchs Chemists.
- #1

Louis Pasteur
1822 - 1895
HPI 89.24164 langsLouis Pasteur is most famous for his work in the field of microbiology. He is credited with discovering the principles of vaccination,...Read moreShow less
Louis Pasteur is most famous for his work in the field of microbiology. He is credited with discovering the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization.
- #2

Antoine Lavoisier
1743 - 1794
HPI 86.04108 langsAntoine Lavoisier is most famous for his work in chemistry. He discovered that water is made up of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen....Read moreShow less
Antoine Lavoisier is most famous for his work in chemistry. He discovered that water is made up of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. He also discovered the law of conservation of mass, which states that matter cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed.
- #3

Irène Joliot-Curie
1897 - 1956
HPI 82.1899 langsShe was a French physicist and chemist who was the daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935...Read moreShow less
She was a French physicist and chemist who was the daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 for her discovery of artificial radioactivity.
- #4

Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac
1778 - 1850
HPI 81.2178 langsJoseph Louis Gay-Lussac is most famous for his law of combining volumes, which states that when gases combine, the volume of the resulting...Read moreShow less
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac is most famous for his law of combining volumes, which states that when gases combine, the volume of the resulting gas is the sum of the volumes of the individual gases.
- #5

Henri Moissan
1852 - 1907
HPI 77.6975 langsHenri Moissan is most famous for his discovery of the element fluorine.
- #6

Alfred Werner
1866 - 1919
HPI 76.6270 langsAlfred Werner is most famous for his discovery of the chemical composition of chlorophyll.
- #7

Victor Grignard
1871 - 1935
HPI 76.4174 langsVictor Grignard was a chemist who is most famous for developing the Grignard reaction. The Grignard reaction is a chemical reaction in which...Read moreShow less
Victor Grignard was a chemist who is most famous for developing the Grignard reaction. The Grignard reaction is a chemical reaction in which an alkyl or aryl halide reacts with an alkali metal to form an organomagnesium compound.
- #8

Henry Louis Le Chatelier
1850 - 1936
HPI 76.2049 langsHenry Louis Le Chatelier is most famous for his principle of Le Chatelier's Principle, which states that if a system at equilibrium is...Read moreShow less
Henry Louis Le Chatelier is most famous for his principle of Le Chatelier's Principle, which states that if a system at equilibrium is disturbed, the system will shift to counteract the disturbance.
- #9

Jean-Pierre Sauvage
b. 1944
HPI 74.9256 langsJean-Pierre Sauvage is most famous for his discovery of the chemical reaction that creates a new type of molecule called a [succinimide]...Read moreShow less
Jean-Pierre Sauvage is most famous for his discovery of the chemical reaction that creates a new type of molecule called a [succinimide] that he and his colleagues found to be an important part of the process of photosynthesis.
- #10

Paul Sabatier
1854 - 1941
HPI 74.8566 langsPaul Sabatier is most famous for his work in the field of catalysis. He developed a process for hydrogenation of organic compounds, which is...Read moreShow less
Paul Sabatier is most famous for his work in the field of catalysis. He developed a process for hydrogenation of organic compounds, which is widely used in the chemical industry.
People by Birth Decade
Browse notable Frenchs Chemists grouped by birth decade. Each decade shows the top 10 by HPI; expand to see everyone.
1960s(1)
1940s(1)
1930s(1)
1910s(1)
1900s(1)
1890s(1)
1810s(6)
1800s(5)
1750s(5)
1640s(1)
Overlapping Lives
Which Chemists were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 25 most globally memorable Chemists since 1700.






















































