Henry Gilman ForMemRS[1] (May 9, 1893 – November 7, 1986) was an American organic chemist known as the father of organometallic chemistry.

While attending graduate school, Gilman had an opportunity to travel in Europe as a recipient of the Sheldon Fellowship.

During his time in Europe, Gilman met Madame Curie at the Sorbonne, the historic University of Paris.

For a short time after receiving his PhD, Henry Gilman worked an associate professor at the University of Illinois after being invited by his former instructor Roger Adams.

While at Iowa State College, Gilman met Ruth V. Shaw, a student of his first-year organic chemistry class, and the two were married in 1929.

Students would write short publications that would spark ideas about additional experiments to perform, drawing all the material together to form a central thesis.

During his career, Gilman consulted for many companies such as Quaker Oats and DuPont, although he continued as a professor at Iowa State University, as it came to be known.

Gilman concentrated on preparing volatile uranium derivatives, mainly dealing with alkoxides, and the syntheses of species with potential anti-malarial activities.

In 1947, due to a combination of glaucoma and detachment of a retina Henry Gilman became blind in one eye and lost most of his vision in the other.

In 1973, the current chemistry building at Iowa State University was renamed Henry Gilman Hall.