This person was born in Europe and undertook their studies there, including their Ph.D. However, it was for work carried out in the US that they made a name for themselves. Together with their chemistry skills, their entrepreneurial nature led them to patent over 55 discoveries through the course of their career.

By their mid-twenties, they had already developed new photographic materials and after moving to the US they invented photographic paper that could be developed using non-natural light. Later, in a bid to find a replacement for a natural resin, they discovered that upon mixing and heating two common chemicals they could produce a material that found applications in a wide range of everyday objects, such as radios, buttons, and telephones, and across a broad range of industries.

In old age, this person became more and more eccentric and eventually died in a sanatorium in New York, USA.

• The Guess the Chemist answer was published on February 23, 2014.
• See more quizzes