Hermann Irving Schlesinger

Hermann Irving Schlesinger (1882-1960) was an American inorganic chemist born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who built his career studying boron chemistry at the University of Chicago, where he earned his doctorate under Julius Stieglitz and later studied abroad with Walther Nernst and Johannes Thiele. He joined the Chicago chemistry department in 1907, became a full professor in 1922, and administered the department from 1922 to 1946. His most significant achievement was the discovery of sodium borohydride in 1940, working with Herbert C. Brown, a compound that became foundational to modern borohydride chemistry. Schlesinger was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and received both the Priestley Medal and the Willard Gibbs Award in 1959.