Lin Lanying
(Died 4 March 2003, Born 7 February 1918): Chinese materials scientist, electrical engineer, physicist and politician, often referred to as the “mother of semiconductor materials” and the “mother of aerospace materials” in China. She was responsible for developing the first monocrystals of silicon, indium antimonide, gallium arsenide and gallium phosphide in China, establishing the foundations of China’s micro– and optoelectronics industries. In recognition of her achievements, she was elected as an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1980 (see China Vitae : Biography of Lin Lanying and Lin Lanying – Wikipedia).
Walter Kohn
(Born 9 March 1923): Austrian-American physicist and chemist, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1998 for his contributions to understanding the electronic properties of materials. He played a key role in the development of density functional theory, which provided new approaches for modelling chemical structures and reactions in complex systems. This pioneering work is now an essential tool in materials science (see Walter Kohn – Facts – NobelPrize.org, Walter Kohn – Wikipedia, and March 9 – Today in Science History Scientists born on March 9th, died, and events).
Johann Rudolf Glauber
(Born 10 March 1604): German-Dutch chemist, often described as one of the world’s first chemical engineers. He discovered sodium sulfate in 1625, leading to it now being commonly known as Glauber’s salt. He was the first person to develop a process for producing concentrated hydrochloric acid from 10 sodium chloride and sulfuric acid (1625) and introduced improvements in the process for manufacturing nitric acid (1648). He is also noted for refining chemical processes and equipment such as furnaces and distillation apparatus, and for being the first person to describe the “chemical garden” obtained by introducing ferrous chloride into a solution of water glass. As a chemist, he was sufficiently successful to be able to live off his work. Based on his personal success, he proposed that establishing a chemical industry in Germany might aid Germany’s economic recovery after the Thirty Years’ war which ended in 1648 (see 350th Anniversary: Death of Johann Rudolph Glauber :: ChemViews Magazine :: ChemistryViews, Johann Rudolf Glauber – Wikipedia, and Johann Glauber – Biography from A Science-History of the Universe (1909) (todayinsci.com)).
