Antoine Jérôme Balard
French chemist
September 30, 1802 - March 30, 1876

Balard was a pharmacist in Montpellier, France in the 19th century. He noticed that the waters of the salt marshes of the Mediterranean showed a yellow color after oxidation. Extracting these brines with ether, he obtained a red liquid from the extract, which he then sent to the French Academy of Science in 1826.

Gay-Lussac was asked to examine this liquid and later announced that it was the new element, bromine. The great German chemist Liebig reportedly said that, considering the odor of bromine, "Balard has not discovered bromine as much as bromine had discovered Balard." Balard later succeeded Thénard at the Sorbonne, where he discovered hypochlorous acid (HOCl).