Charles Adolphe Wurtz

Adolphe Wurtz
Born	(1817-11-26)26 November 1817 Wolfisheim, near Strasbourg, France
Died	10 May 1884(1884-05-10) (aged 66) Paris, France
Nationality	French
Alma mater	University of Strasbourg
Known for	Wurtz reaction
Awards	Faraday Lectureship Prize (1879) Copley Medal (1881)
Scientific career
Fields	Chemistry
Doctoral advisor	Amédée Cailliot
Other academic advisors	Justus von Liebig
Doctoral students	Charles Friedel Armand Gautier
Other notable students	Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff Alexander Zaytsev

Charles Adolphe Wurtz (French: [vyʁts]; 26 November 1817 – 10 May 1884) was an Alsatian French chemist. 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 Marcellin Berthelot and Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville. He is well known by organic chemists for the Wurtz reaction, to form carbon-carbon bonds by reacting alkyl halides with sodium, and for his discoveries of ethylamine, ethylene glycol, and the aldol reaction. Wurtz was also an influential writer and educator.