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Charles Adolphe Wurtz
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<p>Charles Adolphe Wurtz (French: [vyʁts]; 26 November 1817 – 10 May 1884) was an <a href="/facts/Alsace/MSXIp87H">Alsatian</a> French <a href="/facts/Chemist/N09K7Bdm">chemist</a>. He is best remembered for his decades-long advocacy for the atomic theory and for ideas about the structures of chemical compounds, against the skeptical opinions of chemists such as <a href="/facts/Marcellin_Berthelot/TaeR6uXD">Marcellin Berthelot</a> and <a href="/facts/Henri_%C3%89tienne_Sainte-Claire_Deville/Pc8C0VmY">Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville</a>. He is well known by organic chemists for the <a href="/facts/Wurtz_reaction/teXQemUj">Wurtz reaction</a>, to form carbon-carbon bonds by reacting alkyl halides with sodium, and for his discoveries of <a href="/facts/Ethylamine/Tj9X5ESb">ethylamine</a>, <a href="/facts/Ethylene_glycol/stFz6CVe">ethylene glycol</a>, and the <a href="/facts/Aldol_reaction/L194Bx0g">aldol reaction</a>. Wurtz was also an influential writer and educator. </p>