Origins & Early Life

Benjamin Silliman (August 8, 1779 – November 24, 1864) was an American chemist and science educator. He was one of the first American professors of science, the first science professor at Yale, and the first person to use the process of fractional distillation in America. He was a founder of the American Journal of Science, the oldest continuously published scientific journal in the United States. Silliman was born in a tavern in North Stratford, now Trumbull, Connecticut, to Mary (Fish) Silliman (widow of John Noyes) and General Gold Selleck Silliman.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

He was born in August 1779, several months after British forces took his father prisoner and his mother had fled their home in Fairfield, Connecticut, to escape 2,000 British troops who burned Fairfield center to the ground. Silliman was educated at Yale, receiving a B.A. degree in 1796 and a M.A. in 1799. He studied law with Simeon Baldwin from 1798 to 1799 and became a tutor at Yale from 1799 to 1802.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

He was admitted to the bar in 1802. That same year he was hired by Yale President Timothy Dwight IV as a professor of chemistry and natural history. Silliman, who had never studied chemistry, prepared for the job by...

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