Louis Nicolas Vauquelin (1763-1829), French chemist. Vauquelin was born in Normandy and in his youth was apprenticed to an apothecary. He was intorduced to Fourcroy in 1783 and served as his laboratory assistant. From 1790 he started publishing results in his own name, including the discovery of beryllium and chromium. He was awarded professorships at several institutions, finally settling at the University of Paris. In his later work he discovered the first amino acid, asparagine, discovered pectin and mailc acid in apples and isolated camphoric and quinic acids. He died while on a visit to his birthplace.