Anselme Payen
Anselme Payen was a
French chemist,
physicist and
mathematician. He was born in
Paris in January
1795. He studied at the École Polytechnique in Paris. At the age of 20 he became manager of a
borax-refining factory, where he developed a process for synthesizing borax from
soda and
boric acid. He also invented new processes for refining
sugar, a decolorimeter, a way to refine
starch and
alcohol from
potatoes, and a method for determination of
nitrogen.
Payen became especially famous for the discovery of the first enzyme, diastase; also for his works on cellulose and paper.\n