Alexander Butlerov

"Butlerov" redirects here. For the lunar crater, see Butlerov (crater).

Alexander Mikhaylovich Butlerov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Бу́тлеров; 15 September 1828 – 17 August 1886) was a Russian chemist, one of the principal creators of the theory of chemical structure (1857–1861), the first to incorporate double bonds into structural formulas, the discoverer of hexamine (1859), the discoverer of formaldehyde (1859) and the discoverer of the formose reaction (1861). He first proposed the idea of possible tetrahedral arrangement of valence bonds in carbon compounds in 1862.

Alexander Mikhaylovich Butlerov
Alexander Butlerov
Born	(1828-09-15)15 September 1828 Chistopol, Kazan Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	17 August 1886(1886-08-17) (aged 57) Butlerovka, Kazan Governorate, Russian Empire
Nationality	Russian
Alma mater	Kazan State University
Known for	discovery of formaldehyde and hexamine
Scientific career
Fields	Chemistry
Institutions	University of St. Petersburg, Kazan State University
Doctoral advisor	Nikolay Zinin
Doctoral students	Alexey Yevgrafovich Favorsky, Vladimir Markovnikov, Alexander Mikhaylovich Zaytsev, Alexander Nikiforovich Popov

The crater Butlerov on the Moon is named after him. In 1956 the Academy of Sciences of the USSR established the A. M. Butlerov Prize.^[1]

Biography

Butlerov was born into a landowning family. In 1849 he graduated from the Imperial Kazan University.^[1] after which he worked there as a teacher. From 1860 to 1863 he was the rector. From 1868 to 1885 he was a professor of Chemistry at the Imperial St. Petersburg University.^[1] Butlerov was the chairman of the Chemistry Department of the Russian Physico-Chemical Society from 1878 to 1882.^[1]

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  1951 Alexander Butlerov USSR postage stamp