Nicolas Louis Vauquelin (1763-1829), was a French pharmacist and chemist. His first acquaintance with chemistry was gained as laboratory assistant to an apothecary in Rouen. In 1797 he isolated chromium in a red lead ore from Siberia. In 1798 he discovered beryllium by extracting it from an emerald and reducing the beryllium chloride with potassium in a platinum crucible. He also managed to get liquid ammonia at atmospheric pressure. In 1806, working with asparagus, he and Pierre Jean Robiquet isolated the amino acid asparagine, the first one to be discovered. He also discovered pectin and malic acid in apples, and isolated camphoric acid and quinic acid. He died in 1829 at the age of 66. The plant genus Vauquelinia is named in his honor, as is the Vauquelin, an egg white foam associated with molecular gastronomy, and the mineral vauquelinite, discovered at the same mine as the crocoite from which Vauquelin isolated chromium.
