Friedrich Wohler was a German chemist who chose to be a teacher of chemistry. He was one of the finest scientists of the 19th century.
Wohler gained international renown from two path breaking discoveries. In 1827, Wohler prepared the first pure sample of aluminum. This metal is the third most prevalent element in the earth’s crust, but it is exceedingly difficult to isolate it from its compounds.
He also discovered how to make urea in the laboratory without the use of a living kidney. This was an important discovery, because it heralded the end of an existing theory that organic compounds could only be made by living things. Wohler was the co-discoverer of beryllium, silicon, and silicon nitride.
In 1832, Wohler, along with another scientist Justus Liebig published a study on the oil of bitter almonds which proved that a group of atoms can act like a single element, and be exchanged for elements in chemical compounds. This too, took the scientific world by storm.