Paul Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran
French chemist
April 18, 1838 - May 28, 1912

De Boisbaudran was unusual in that he did not hold an academic position during his career. However, he worked in his own laboratory, his most important work being the application of spectroscopy to chemistry.

There he discovered a relation between the emission lines of metals and their atomic weights. When he applied this technique to a sample of zinc ore from a mine in France, he found a new, strong violet line in its spectrum. On examining this spectrum in relation to Group 3A elements he decided that it indicated an as yet unknown element in the Group and proposed the name gallium in 1875. Later studies showed that this was the element eka-aluminum predicted by Mendeleev. Later, when more ore was available, de Boisbaudran was able to prepare 62 grams of metallic gallium. In later years, de Boisbaudran was associated with the discovery of samarium (1875), dysprosium (1886), and gadolinium (1889).