Ascanio Sobrero (1812-1888) was an Italian scientist who discovered nitroglycerin in 1847 while working under Théophile-Jules Pelouze at the University of Torino, who had worked with the explosive material guncotton.

He initially called his discovery "pyroglycerin", and warned vigourously against its use in his private letters and in a journal article, stating that it was extremely dangerous and impossible to handle.

Another of Pelouze's students was the young Alfred Nobel, who took the knowledge back to the Nobel family's defunct armaments factory, and began experimenting with the materiel around 1860; it did, indeed prove to be very difficult to discover how to handle it safely. Throughout the 1860s Nobel received several patents around the world for mixtures, devices and manufacturing methods based on the explosive power of nitroglycerin, eventually leading to the invention of dynamite.

Although Nobel always acknowledged and honored Sobero as the man who had discovered nitroglycerin, Sobrero was dismayed both by the uses to which the terrible power of the explosive had been put, and by the fame and fortune accorded to Nobel because of it.