Leo Hendrik Baekeland (1863-1944), the famous Belgian chemist, is best known for his invention, about 1906, of the synthetic resin later known as bakelite.
Bakelite was the trademark for the first totally synthetic plastic in the family of phenol-formaldehyde resins and was used for manufacturing the first generation of telephones, amongst many other things.
Born in Ghent and educated at the University of Ghent, Baekeland emmigrated to the United States in 1889. He manufactured photographic papers and developed a new type of paper (Velox) that could be developed under artificial light. The founder of modern plastics, he received many honors, including the Nichols Medal of the American Chemical Society in 1909 and the Franklin Medal of the Franklin Institute in 1940.