Eduard Simon

{{Short description|German chemist (1789–1856)}}

Johann Eduard Simon (18 September 1789 – 19 June 1856){{cite book|author=Georg Schwedt|title=Plastisch, Elastisch, und Fantastisch: Ohne Kunststoffe Geht es Nicht|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8T2BAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA95|date=19 August 2013|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-3-527-66530-3|page=95}} was an apothecary in Berlin, Germany.

Johann Eduard Simon accidentally discovered polystyrene in 1839. Simon distilled an oily substance from storax, the resin of the Sweetgum tree, Liquidambar orientalis, which he named "styrol". Several days later he found that the styrol had thickened, presumably due to polymerisation, into a jelly which he dubbed styrol oxide ("Stryroloxyd").Scheirs, John. [https://books.google.com/books?id=FRGoFxKels4C&pg=PA3 "Historical Overview of Syrenic Polymers"] in {{cite book|author=John Scheirs & Duane Priddy (Eds.)|title=Modern Styrenic Polymers: Polystyrenes and Styrenic Copolymers|year=2003|pages=3-23 (p. 3)|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|location=Chichester|isbn=978-0-471-49752-3}}