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William Francis Hillebrand (December 12 1853 – February 7 1925) was an American chemist. He was the son of the renowned botanist William Hillebrand.

He studied in Germany at the University of Heidelberg and after he received his Ph.D in 1875 he worked with Robert Bunsen for two semesters. His research on metallic cerium which he togeter with Thomas Norton obtained first in 1872 stared his academic career.

He studied three semesters organic chemistry with Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig at the University of Straßburg, but changed to geochemistry and metallurgy by studying at the Freiberg Mining Academy. After returning home to the United States he started working at the United States Geological Survey in 1880. He changed to the National Bureau of Standards in 1909

During an analysis of the uranium containing mineral uranite he discovered that a gas evolved. He identified this gas by spectroscopic methods to be nitrogen. Several years later in 1895 William Ramsay did similar experiments with uranium containing minerals and discovered by similar methods that the gas was a mixture of argon and helium which was until then only known to exist in the corona of stars.

A reexamination of the samples of Hillebrand by Ramsay showed that the gas from uranite contained a large amount of nitrogen.

References

• Frank Wigglesworth Clarke. "William Francis Hillebrand" (PDF). Biographical Memoir of the National Academy of Science.

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