John Addison Porter

John Addison Porter (1822 to 1866) was an American chemist and physician, born in Catskill, New York, who taught chemistry at Delaware College, Brown University and, from 1852, at the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale, then called the Yale Scientific School. He graduated from Yale College in 1842, studied in Philadelphia and then under Justus von Liebig at the University of Giessen in Germany. At Yale he succeeded John Pitkin Norton as Professor of Analytical and Agricultural Chemistry, holding that chair from 1852 to 1856 before becoming Professor of Organic Chemistry until ill health forced him to resign in 1864. He wrote several chemistry textbooks, including Principles of Chemistry, and was the first to translate part of the Finnish epic Kalevala into English. He also helped found the Scroll and Key society at Yale, and a Yale prize for scholarship bears his name.