Britton Chance (1913-2010) was a biochemist and biophysicist as well as a pioneer in the field of biomedical optics. Chance received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1940 and his Ph.D. in Biology and Physiology from Cambridge University in 1942. Over the course of his nearly eight decade career, Chance was dedicated to the application and transfer of basic scientific research and technology to clinical medicine. The Britton Chance Papers contain correspondence, research notes, experimental data, publication materials, and photographs stemming from Chance's life as a biochemist, biophysicist, and yachtsman. The collection is broken up into fifteen series that document every aspect of his scientific work.

Baruch S. Blumberg was a biomedical researcher at the Fox Chase Cancer Center, in Philadelphia, PA, during the second half of the 20th century. His research into Australia Antigen and the Hepatitis B Virus led to a vaccine for the virus and a share of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Dr. Blumberg also served as chief of the Geographic Medicine and Genetics Section at the NIH (1957-1964), Master of Balliol College (1989-1994), the first Director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute (1999-2002), and President of the American Philosophical Society (2005-2011).