Leo Hendrik Baekeland
Baekeland, Leo Hendrik (1863-1944), a United States chemist. He is considered to be the father of the plastics industry. Baekeland was born in Ghent, Belgium, and graduated from the University of Ghent in 1882. He came to the United States in 1889. In 1893 he invented Velox, the first photographic paper that could be developed with artificial light. He formed a company to manufacture this paper, but in 1899 sold out to the Eastman Kodak Company.
With the money he made from Velox, Baekeland began a study of resins. This work resulted in his invention of Bakelite (1909), the first plastic to have wide practical applications.