Humphry Davy ( 1778 - 1829 )

Birth: Penzance, Cornwall, England (17 December 1778) Death: Hotel room, Geneva, Switzerland (29 May 1829) Burial: Plain-Palais cemetery, Geneva, Switzerland Research Field: Chemistry Career: Apprenticed to a surgeon in Penzance and studied chemistry and chemical experimentation; assistant, Sir Thomas Beddoes' Pneumatic Institute, Bristol and experimented on gases; Assistant lecturer on Chemistry, Royal Institution, London (1801); Director, Royal Institution (1805); discovered potassium (1807) and other elements; resigned chair of Chemistry at Royal Institution (1813); invented safety lamp (1815) The foremost British chemist of his day, he rose to prominence at the Pneumatic Institute in Bristol, before moving to the Royal Institution in London, and eventually became President of the Royal Society.