Wilbur Scoville
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Wilbur L. Scoville (1865-1942), a chemist, is best known for his creation of the "The Scoville Organaloptic Test", now standardized as the Scoville scale. He devised the test and scale in 1912 while working at the Parke Davis pharmaceutical company to measure "hotness" of various chili peppers. In 1922, Scoville won the Ebert prize from the American Pharmaceutical Association and in 1929 he received the Remington Honor Medal. Scoville also received an honorary Doctor of Science from Columbia University. Scoville wrote The Art of Compounding which was first published in 1895 and has gone through at least 8 editions. The book was used as a pharmacological reference until the 1960’s. Scoville also wrote Extract & Perfumes which contained hundreds of formulations -- after all Scoville had a knack for compounding. Scoville died in 1942 but his name will forever go on with the Scoville Heat Unit and in the lives of chili lovers everywhere. He won the following awards from the American Pharmaceutical Association (APhA):
- 1922 - The Ebert Prize , given to "...recognize the author(s) of the best report of original investigation of a medicinal substance..."
- 1929 - The Remington Honor Medal, the APhA's top award.
He received an honorary doctorate from Columbia University in 1929. His publications include The Art of Compounding (1895) and Extracts and Perfumes.