The answer to this interesting question would greatly depend on who is asking it; i.e. Where does the enquirer live and who would he or she consider to be foreigners? Putting this minor obstacle aside and assuming an English-speaking background, here are some of the 'foreigners' who have made major contributions to the science of chemistry:
In the ninth century, Jabir ibn Hayyan, considered to be a father of chemistry and known across Europe as Geber, introduced a laboratory-based experimental and systematic approach to research. In 1556, Georg Agricola published the De re metallica, which described a variety of ore smelting furnaces and sparked a lot of interest in minerals and the composition of minerals. Jean Beguin published his chemistry textbook, containing the first chemical equation ever drawn, in 1615. Antoine Lavoisier developed the law of mass conservation in 1789, presenting chemistry with a strict quantitative law or nature, making reliable predictions possible.
Carl Wilhelm Scheele not only isolated oxygen around 1770, but also identified lime, silica and iron within a piece of pyrosulite. He simultaneously detected another component, namely manganese, but was unable to isolate and identify it. In 1800, Alessandro Volta created the first chemical battery, consequently founding electrochemistry as a discipline. Friedrich Woehler was the first scientist to synthesize an organic compound from inorganic matter in 1828. Although this first instance was an accident, it ultimately led to scientists being able to synthesize hundreds of organic compounds, including aspirin.
Other famous 'foreigners' were Jean Perrin, Wilhelm Ostwald, Ernst Mach, Amedeo Avogadro, Ludwig Boltzmann, Jaques Charles, Claude Louis Berthollet, Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac, Joens Jakob Berzelius and Justus von Liebig. Then, of course, there were Louis Pasteur, Stanislao Cannizzaro, J. H. Van t'Hoff, Marie Curie and husband Pierre, Niels Bohr, Otto Hahn, Auguste Comte and many others.
In the ninth century, Jabir ibn Hayyan, considered to be a father of chemistry and known across Europe as Geber, introduced a laboratory-based experimental and systematic approach to research. In 1556, Georg Agricola published the De re metallica, which described a variety of ore smelting furnaces and sparked a lot of interest in minerals and the composition of minerals. Jean Beguin published his chemistry textbook, containing the first chemical equation ever drawn, in 1615. Antoine Lavoisier developed the law of mass conservation in 1789, presenting chemistry with a strict quantitative law or nature, making reliable predictions possible.
Carl Wilhelm Scheele not only isolated oxygen around 1770, but also identified lime, silica and iron within a piece of pyrosulite. He simultaneously detected another component, namely manganese, but was unable to isolate and identify it. In 1800, Alessandro Volta created the first chemical battery, consequently founding electrochemistry as a discipline. Friedrich Woehler was the first scientist to synthesize an organic compound from inorganic matter in 1828. Although this first instance was an accident, it ultimately led to scientists being able to synthesize hundreds of organic compounds, including aspirin.
Other famous 'foreigners' were Jean Perrin, Wilhelm Ostwald, Ernst Mach, Amedeo Avogadro, Ludwig Boltzmann, Jaques Charles, Claude Louis Berthollet, Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac, Joens Jakob Berzelius and Justus von Liebig. Then, of course, there were Louis Pasteur, Stanislao Cannizzaro, J. H. Van t'Hoff, Marie Curie and husband Pierre, Niels Bohr, Otto Hahn, Auguste Comte and many others.
