Amadeo Avogadro (1776 - 1856)

His career in science is a sad story. He was noted as one of the founders of physical chemistry - posthumously!

After Joseph Gay-Lussac's findings about the behavior of gases in 1809, Avogadro made a brilliant proposal in 1811 - currently known as "Avogadro's Hypothesis", but few scientists at the time paid much attention to it. Since science and engineering are "human" endeavors - reputation matters. He received no recognition for his work because: (a) his contemporaries did not consider him to be a brilliant experimenter, (b) he did not back up his hypothesis with an impressive exhibition of experimental results, (c) he published in obscured journals, and (d) he wasn't working in the mainstream of chemistry of his time.

A drawing showing the likeness of Amadeo Avogadro. (Picture adapted from image on Http://gamstcweb.gisd.k12.mi.us/~nmdf/)

It was not until two years after his death that his colleagues show how Avogadro's Number could solve many of the outstanding problems of chemistry at the time. Only then did they look at his paper, 50 years after he made the hypothesis, more carefully by a wider and more distinguished group of scientists.