Whose name is among the most well-known for being associated with peace, yet was the inventor of an explosive?

Invented dynamite

(That was too easy!)

Alfred Bernhard Nobel (October 21, 1833, Stockholm, Sweden—December 10, 1896, Sanremo, Italy) was a Swedish chemist, engineer, innovator, armaments manufacturer and the inventor of dynamite. He owned Bofors, a major armaments manufacturer, which he had redirected from its previous role as an iron and steel mill. In his last will, he used his enormous fortune to institute the Nobel Prizes. The synthetic element Nobelium was named after him. - Wikipedia.com