1871-1935

French chemist who shared the 1912 Nobel Prize for his discovery of the Grignard reaction process. By treating magnesium filings with methyl iodide under anhydrous ether to avoid spontaneous atmospheric combustion, compounds of the general formula RMgX (R = an ether molecular group, Mg = magnesium, X = an anion) could be formed and then used as reagents for synthesizing numerous basic organic compounds. The reaction remains one of the most important synthetic tools employed in organic chemistry today.