Arnold Beckman

Arnold O. Beckman (April 10, 1900 – May 18, 2004) was the founder and chairman of Beckman Instruments, and is one of the top inventors of scientific instruments that revolutionized the study of human biology, ultimately saving countless lives around the world. In 1922, he earned his degree in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois, and, in 1928, received his doctorate degree in photochemistry at the California Institute of Technology. While teaching at Cal Tech, he founded Beckman Instruments in 1935, with the production of a pH meter he invented. A forerunner of modern electrochemical instrumentation, the scientific instrument simplified and expedited acidity and alkalinity measurements. It quickly became an indispensable tool in analytical chemistry and, in 1987, earned him a place in the National Inventors Hall of Fame. In 1940, Beckman created the DU Spectrophotometer, which revolutionized chemical analysis by improving the time and accuracy of biological assays to minutes with a 99.9 percen