Julius Lewkowitsch (1857-1913) was a chemical engineer who specialized in vegetable and animal oils and fats. Lewkowitsch was born in Prussian Silesia on September 4, 1857. Lewkowitsch attended Breslau University, where he studied with Victor von Richter (1841-1891). In 1879 he graduated with a Ph.D.; he also earned a M.A. degree in 1881. After graduation Lewkowitsch spent a year teaching mathematics and natural science in Real Gymnasium in Berlin. Lewkowitsch then took a position as a research assistant to Victor Meyer (1848-1897) at the University of Heidelberg. At Heidelberg Lewkowitsch studied fats and fatty oils. His first published work concerned the action of nitric acid on fatty acids. Lewkowitsch soon left the academic world for a position as a research chemist at the tar distillery Aktiengesellschaft Fur Teerindustrie Erkner in Berlin. In 1887, Lewkowitsch immigrated to England and became Chemist and Technical Manager to the Whitehall Soap Works in Leeds. It was there that Lewkowitsch became the first person to prepare chemically pure glycerin from soap makers’ lyes. Lewkowitsch presented his results at the Leeds meeting of the British Pharmaceutical Conference in 1890. Prior to his presentation, glycerin was recovered from the arsenic in soap lye. The key to Lewkowitsch’s method was to avoid the use of arsenic in soap, making glycerin recovery much easier.

In 1895 Lewkowitsch became a consulting chemist and technologist in oils and fats in Manchester. That same year he published the first of six editions (1895, 1898, 1904, 1909, 1913, and 1921) of The Chemical Technology and Analysis of Oils, Fats, and Waxes. Although Lewkowitsch’s initial publication was founded on Rudolf Benedikt’s Analyse der Fette und Wachsarten, his later editions would be original works. Lewkowitsch book editions expanded to three volumes and were printed in French and German.

Lewkowitsch joined the Society of Chemical Industry in 1889. He contributed articles to the Society’s publications and wrote entries for the Encyclopedia Britannica on oils and fats. In 1898, Lewkowitsch moved to London, where he maintained a laboratory on Priory Road, West Hampstead and offices on Queen Victoria Street in the city of London. Lewkowitsch married Katherine Julia Morris (1870-1940), May 5, 1902. The two had one daughter, Phyllis Regina Elsa Lewkowitsch (1903-1980) and a son Jason Farradane (1906-1989). In 1905 Julius was elected vice president of the London Section of the Society of Chemical Industry. Lewkowitsch went on to become chairman in 1908 and foreign secretary of the society in 1911, a position he held until his death in 1913. For his work as a chemist, Lewkowitsch was awarded the Lavoisier Medal in 1909. Lewkowitsch, an accomplished linguist, spoke German, French, Italian, and English. Julius Lewkowitsch died September 15, 1913 after an illness.