Filip Neriusz Walter

Filip Neriusz Walter (31 May 1810 - 9 Apr 1847) was a Polish chemist, one of the pioneers of organic chemistry.

He was one of the youngest students of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, where he studied history and chemistry in 1825-1828. Subsequently, he studied in the Berlin University receiving there his Ph.D. on the base of dissertation "On combination between oxalid acid and alkali". Simultaneously he was an assistant of prof. Eilhard Mitscherlich.

After an outbreak of The November Uprising in 1830 he came to Warsaw and join the Polish army. He served as an adjutant for colonel Samuel Rozycki, the commander of 7. infantry regiment.

In 1831 in the age of 21, he was named a professor of chemistry at the Jagiellonian University, but he granted a leave of absence and went to Germany and France to become acquainted with applied chemistry. In France, he cooperated with famous chemists, Jean Dumas and Pierre-Joseph Pelletier. His achievements won him recognition from the French Academy. In sum, he recovered and explored 24 new chemical compounds, among others toluene, biphenyl, nitrotoluene, cedrene, potassium hydroxide, dihydrate, chromyl chloride, kumen, biphenyl, benzyl chloride, benzyl bromide, nitrotoluene, and menthene.

In 1847, he granted a cross of the Legion of Honour.