Henri Moissan

Henri Moissan was a French chemist and pharmacist born on 28 September 1852. His breakthrough came when he successfully isolated fluorine from its compounds, a feat that had eluded and injured previous researchers. The achievement earned him the 1906 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Along the way he discovered moissanite, a mineral later named for him, and helped develop the electric arc furnace, a tool that would reshape industrial metallurgy. He was appointed one of the original members of the International Atomic Weights Committee. Moissan died on 20 February 1907, less than a year after Stockholm…