Lyman C. Craig

Lyman C. Craig (1906 to 1974) was a chemical researcher, born in Palmyra Township, Warren County, Iowa, who worked at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research from 1933 onward. In 1944 he published a seminal paper on countercurrent distribution, a separation technique that he went on refining for three decades with new theory, improved apparatus and fresh applications, and which also inspired the field of countercurrent chromatography. In 1950 he invented the rotary evaporator, now standard equipment in chemistry laboratories, and he also devised the Craig tube, a small apparatus used for recrystallization. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1950, received the 1963 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.