Robert R. Williams

Robert Runnels Williams (February 16, 1886 – October 2, 1965) was an American chemist, known for being the first to chemically fully characterize and then synthesize thiamine (vitamin B₁). He first isolated thiamine in 1933, and synthesized it in 1935, reporting this in 1936. Williams also provided the modern name "thiamine" from the molecule's sulfur atom, and it being a vitamin (a class ultimately named for the earlier-known amine of thiamine itself).

Among his awards were the Elliott Cresson Medal in 1940 and the Perkin Medal in 1947. He was elected to both the American Philosophical Society and the United States National Academy of Sciences. His brother was Roger J. Williams, another important chemist at the time and discoverer of Vitamin B₅. Provided by Wikipedia