Henri Moissan
Chemist
A French chemist whose work isolating the chemical element fluorine led to the invention of the electric furnace. He received the 1906 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his important work.
He decided to study chemistry after saving someone who was intoxicated with arsenic.
He was one of the original members of the International Atomic Weights Committee, a group entrusted with periodic critical evaluation of atomic weights of elements and other cognate data.
His family were Sephardic Jews who originated in Toulouse.
He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1906, five years before Madame Curie did.