| Gottfried Christoph Beireis | |
| Birth Date: | 2 March 1730 |
| Birth Place: | Free imperial city of Mühlhausen, Holy Roman Empire |
| Death Place: | Helmstedt, Kingdom of Westphalia |
| Nationality: | German |
| Fields: | Physicist, chemist, and physician |
| Workplaces: | University of Helmstedt |
| Alma Mater: | University of Helmstedt |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Lorenz Heister |
| Academic Advisors: | Georg Erhardt Hamberger |
| Doctoral Students: | Christian Heinrich Bünger |
| Known For: | Production of cinnabar red dye |
Gottfried Christoph Beireis (2 March 1730 - 18 September 1809) was a German chemist and doctor. He was also a collector of curiosities who rescued some of Jacques de Vaucanson's automata.[1]
Beireis was born in Mühlhausen. He taught anatomy, medicine, surgery, chemistry, botany, natural history, pharmacy, mineralogy, metallurgy, agriculture, forestry, music, painting, and numismatics.
As a student, he discovered a way to convert ammonium sulfide to cinnabar and made a fortune selling the latter as a red dye.
Beireis was a student of Georg Erhardt Hamberger's in Jena in 1753. Beireis became a professor in 1759 without having obtained his MD degree; the degree was awarded subsequently for work done at Helmstadt under Lorenz Heister between 1756 and 1759.
He died in Helmstedt.