Jan Amesz at center, with Govindjee and David C. Fork (late 1980's)

Jerry Babcock on left, with Bob Blankenship (2000)

Herb Gutowsky, authority on nuclear magnetic resonance

Jan Baptista van Helmont (1580-1644), a Flemish physician and chemist, was the first person to demonstrate that soil contributes very little to the increase in the weight of plants.
His works were published posthumously in 1648 as Ortus Medicinae.