Gmelins

Gmelins is a German surname associated with a number of scientists and scholars, primarily in the fields of natural history and chemistry. The name is most often encountered in historical accounts of 18th‑ and 19th‑century science and in reference works that bore the family’s imprint. The best‑documented contributions relate to exploration, taxonomy, and the organization of chemical knowledge.

Notable figures include:

- Johann Georg Gmelin (1709–1755), a German naturalist and explorer whose work in Siberia and the Russian far east contributed to early collections and natural history descriptions. His travels and writings helped increase knowledge of northern and eastern fauna, flora, and ethnography.

- Leopold Gmelin (1788–1851), a German chemist known for editing and organizing the Handbuch der Chemie, later widely referred to as the Gmelin Handbook of Inorganic Chemistry. The work became a foundational reference for inorganic chemistry in the 19th century and influenced subsequent generations of chemical literature.

The Gmelin surname thus appears in historical science literature as a marker of a family tradition in natural history and chemistry. While not all members are equally documented, the two figures above illustrate the kind of scholarly activity associated with the name. In modern references, “Gmelin” is often encountered in connection with the chemical handbook, rather than as a descriptor of contemporary research.