Henry Armstrong. Portrait of Henry Edward Armstrong, English chemist and educator (1848- 1937). He was the first professor of chemistry in what became Imperial College, London. He pioneered work in organic chemistry, particularly on the structure and reactions of benzene and naphtha- lene compounds. Armstrong, however, is most well known as an innovator in chemistry education and for his teaching in environmental chemistry. He was one of the last doubters of the real existence of atoms.