Teacher's Resources

Antoine Lavoisier

Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (also Antoine Lavoisier) is considered the ‘Father of Modern Chemistry’. Lavoisier is credited for discovering the role of oxygen in combustion. He also gave the ‘Law of Conservation of Mass’ that states that mass is neither created nor destroyed in a chemical reaction. Lavoisier also named oxygen and hydrogen.

Dmitri Mendeleev

Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev was the ﬁrst scientist who formulated the ‘Modern Periodic Table of Elements’. Mendeleev used the table to predict the existence and properties of new chemical elements.

John Dalton

John Dalton is credited for proposing the modern atomic theory. He also gave the Law of Multiple Proportions and the Law of Partial Pressures.

J.J. Thomson

J.J. Thomson discovered the electron and proposed the ‘Plum Pudding Model’, according to which electrons are embedded in a cloud of protons. The model represents that electrons are surrounded by positive charges in order to balance negative charges. Thomson helped us to have a better understanding of the atom and its structure.

Ernest Rutherford

Ernest Rutherford performed the famous ‘gold foil experiment’. He proposed that protons and neutrons lie at the centre of an atom in the nucleus, and are surrounded by electrons. He also discovered the concept of radioactive half-life.

Niels Bohr

Niels Henrik David Bohr developed the ‘Bohr model of an atom’ or ‘Bohr atomic model’. He proposed that energy levels of electrons are discrete and electrons revolve in orbits around the nucleus of an atom.

Nagarjuna

Nagarjuna (931 CE) an Indian chemist who wrote a book on the various aspects of chemistry. The book titled Rasaratnakara covered topics like extraction of metals such as gold, silver and copper from their ores, and the processes of distillation and sublimation.

1. Introduction to Chemistry