Jaroslav Heyrovský

Jaroslav Heyrovský was born in Prague on December 20, 1890. Studying at Charles University and under William Ramsay at University College London, Heyrovský became Professor of Physical Chemistry at Charles University in 1926.

In 1922, Heyrovský invented polarography—using a dropping mercury electrode to measure current voltage curves of electrochemical solutions. In 1925, he constructed the automatic polarograph with Masuzo Shikata. In 1959, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 'for his discovery and development of the polarographic methods of analysis'.