Alexander Crum Brown

Alexander Crum Brown FRSE FRS (26 March 1838 – 28 October 1922) was a Scottish organic chemist. Alexander Crum Brown Road in Edinburgh's King's Buildings complex is named after him.

Alexander Crum Brown was born at 4 Bellevue Terrace in Edinburgh. His mother, Margaret Fisher Crum (d. 1841), was the sister of the chemist Walter Crum, and his father, Rev Dr John Brown (1784-1858), was minister of Broughton Place Church in the east end of Edinburgh's New Town. Crum Brown was baptised on 6 May 1838. His half brother was the physician and essayist John Brown.

For five years, he studied at the Royal High School, then for one year at Mill Hill School in London. In 1854, he entered the University of Edinburgh where he first studied Arts and then Medicine. He was gold medallist in Chemistry and Natural Philosophy and graduated with an MA in 1858. Continuing his medical studies, he received his MD in 1861.

At this time he was also studying for a science degree at the University of London, and in 1862 became the first Doctor of Science at the University of London. After his graduation as from the University of Edinburgh he continued studying chemistry in Germany, first under Robert Bunsen at the University of Heidelberg, and then at the University of Marburg under Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe.

In 1863, he returned to the University of Edinburgh as an extra-academical lecturer in chemistry. In 1869, he was appointed the Professor of Chemistry holding the chair until his retirement in 1908. In his application for this position he was supported by famous chemists such as Baeyer, Beilstein, Bunsen, Butlerov, Erlenmeyer, Hofmann, Kolbe, Volhard and Wöhler. One of his students was Arthur Conan Doyle.

The Crum Brown Chair of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh was established in 1967 in his honour.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1863, was awarded its Keith Medal for 1873–75. He served as the Society's vice president from 1905 to 1911. His address at the time of joining the Society was given as 8 Belgrave Crescent in the west end of Edinburgh.

In 1867, he was elected a member of the Harveian Society of Edinburgh and served as one of its secretaries from 1881 to 1903. He was president of the Society in 1899. In 1883 he was elected a member of the Aesculapian Club.