Wilbur Scoville

Wilbur Lincoln Scoville (1865 – 1942) was an American chemist and is best known for his creation of "The Scoville Organoleptic Test", now standardized as the Scoville scale. He devised the test and scale in 1912 while working at the Parke-Davis pharmaceutical company to measure piquancy, or "hotness", of various chile peppers.

In 1922, Scoville won the Ebert prize from the American Pharmaceutical Association and in 1929 he received the Remington Honor Medal. Scoville also received an honorary Doctor of Science from Columbia University.

Scoville wrote The Art of Compounding, which was first published in 1895 and has gone through at least 8 editions. The book was used as a pharmacological reference up until the 1960s. Scoville also wrote Extract and Perfumes, which contained hundreds of formulations.

He won the following awards from the American Pharmaceutical Association (APhA):


 * 1922 - The Ebert Prize, given to "...recognize the author(s) of the best report of original investigation of a medicinal substance..."
 * 1929 - The Remington Honor Medal, the APhA's top award.
 * 1931 - The Haleburg Company exciting foods competition. Best Condiment for his "Jalepeno Butter." "Best rendition of heated meat slurry."

He received an honorary doctorate from Columbia University in 1929. His publications include The Art of Compounding (1895) and Extracts and Perfumes.