Robert Boyle

Robert Boyle (1627–1691) was an Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, regarded as the first modern chemist and a pioneer of the experimental method. Born at Lismore Castle, son of the Earl of Cork, he was sent to Eton and in 1641 studied Galileo's writings in Florence before returning in 1644.

He joined the Invisible College circle and in 1654 moved to Oxford. After reading of Otto von Guericke's vacuum pump, he and Robert Hooke improved it into the machina Boyleana by 1659. In 1662 he stated that the volume of a gas varies inversely with pressure, the rule known as Boyle's law.

His Sceptical Chymist (1661) is a cornerstone of chemistry. When the circle became the Royal Society in 1663 he joined its council, later declining the presidency. From 1668 he lived in London with his sister Katherine; he died on 31 December 1691, and his will endowed the Boyle Lectures.