Paul Sabatier was born at Carcassonne in southern France on November 5, 1854. He taught many science and physics classes most of his life before he became Dean of the Faculty of Science in 1905.

Sabatier's earliest researches concerned the thermochemistry of sulphur and metallic sulphates, the subject for his thesis leading to his doctorate; and in Toulouse, he continued his physico-chemical investigations to sulphides, chlorides, chromates and copper compounds. He also studied the oxides of nitrogen and nitrosodisulphonic acid and its salts and carried out fundamental research on partition coefficients and absorption spectra.

Sabatier is best known for the Sabatier Process and his works such as La Catalyse en Chimie Orgarnique (Catalysis in organic chemistry) which was published in 1913. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1912, too.

Sabatier was married with four daughters, one of whom wed the famous Italian chemist Emilio Pomilio . He died on August 14, 1941.