Victor Grignard (1871-1935)

French chemist born in Cherbourg. He did his doctoral work in Lyon with Philippe Barbier, who had tried with limited success to add alkyl halides and magnesium to ketones in a single step. Grignard first prepared the organomagnesium compound in ether and then added it to the carbonyl: in 1900 he described Grignard reagents, which soon became one of the most widely used methods in organic synthesis.

He was professor in Nancy and in Lyon, and received the 1912 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which he shared with Paul Sabatier.

More information: en.wikipedia.org