Wilbur O. Atwater (1844–1907) was born in Johnsburg, New York. He graduated from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and received his doctorate in agricultural chemistry at the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale University in 1869. After leaving Yale, Atwater traveled to Germany, where he studied the organization of German agricultural experiment stations. When Atwater returned to the United States in 1875, he was appointed professor of chemistry at Wesleyan University, a position he held for the remainder of his life.
