Who is credited with discovering chromatography?

The discovery of chromatography is generally attributed to the Russian botanist Mikhail S. Tsvet.1

While earlier 19th-century chemists performed experiments involving capillary action—such as Friedrich Goppelsröder’s "capillary analysis"—Tsvet is credited because, in 1901, he recognized the physicochemical basis of the separation process and applied it in a rational, organized manner to separate plant pigments like chlorophyll and carotenoids.1

Tsvet packed a vertical glass column with an adsorptive material and washed pigments through it with a solvent, resulting in discrete colored bands. He coined the term "chromatography," derived from Greek words meaning "colour writing," to describe this method. Although his work remained relatively obscure in the Western world for years, his technique laid the foundation for modern chromatographic procedures.12