text: The teaching of Chemistry at Edinburgh began in 1713 when James Crawford was appointed to the Chair of Physik and Chymistry (where physik = natural science/art of medicine). The department has occupied many sites in its history, from a house at the top of Robertsons Close in the city centre, to purpose-built facilities in the central campus at Old College through to its current location at Kings Buildings. Each move has brought with it expansions in size and status until the department occupied the position it does now, as one of the world's leading Chemistry teaching and research establishments.
  The department also hosts the oldest student-run Chemistry society in the world which was created in 1785 and is still active today.
  Today the department carries on the traditions of Chemistry at Edinburgh both in teaching and research. The collaborative research School formed with St Andrews University Chemistry department to form EaStCHEM has strengthened research in Scotland in the chemical sciences.
  Alumni and former staff include:
  * Thomas Anderson, discoverer of pyridine
  * Joseph Black, discoverer of carbon dioxide, latent heat and specific heat
  * Perdita Barran, Professor in the School of Chemistry, University of Manchester
  * Neil Campbell, chemist and amateur athlete
  * Archibald Scott Couper, proposed an early theory of chemical structure and bonding
  * John Davy, discoverer of phosgene
  * James Dewar, inventor of the Dewar flask
  * Narayan Hosmane, cancer researcher, BNCT
  * David Leigh, Forbes Chair of Organic Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh from 2001 to 2012, Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology winner in 2007
  * Christina Miller, synthesized phosphorus trioxide
  * Dai Rees, CEO of the Medical Research Council from 1987 to 1996
  * Prafulla Chandra Roy, distinguished chemist and founder of Bengal Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals
  * Daniel Rutherford, discovered nitrogen while he was studying at the University of Edinburgh in 1772
  * James Fraser Stoddart, supramolecular chemist
  * Lesley Yellowlees CBE, first female president of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Vice-President of the University of Edinburgh