Robert Boyle

Known as "… the son of the Earl of Cork and the father of Chemistry", Robert Boyle was born in Lismore, Co. Waterford, the youngest of fourteen children of Richard Boyle, First Earl of Cork, and his second wife, Katherine Fenton. Robert played a key role in establishing the experimental method, on which all modern science is based.

He was a founder of the Royal Society in 1661, the same year in which he published his most famous book The Sceptical Chymist. One of his most memorable legacies to science was his experiments with the air pump with which he investigated the nature and properties of the vacuum. He demonstrated that, in a vacuum, sound could not be heard, a feather fell faster than it did in air, a candle was extinguished, and animals could not survive.

Today's students still learn "Boyle Law", which states that at constant temperature, the volume of gas is inversely proportional to the pressure applied to it (V x p = constant).