Friedrich Adolf Paneth (31.08.1887—17.09.1958) was an Austrian radiochemist and chemist, one of the pioneers of radiochemistry. He was born in Vienna. In 1910 he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Vienna. In 1912—18 he worked at the Radium Institute in Vienna (in 1913 he worked for a short time at the universities of Glasgow and Manchester), in 1919 — 22 he was professor at the University of Hamburg, in 1922 - 29 at the University of Berlin, in 1929 - 33 at the University of Königsberg, in 1933 38 at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London, and in 1939-53 at the University of Durham. From 1953 he was director of the Institute of Chemistry in Mainz.
His main work was in radiochemistry. In 1913, together with G. Hevesy, he developed the method of labelled atoms. He determined the age of rocks from the content of helium formed by the decay of radium and studied the content of helium in meteorites. He found a way of obtaining free organic radicals and established their high reactivity.