Emil Fischer 1852 - 1919

occupation:
Chemist
Nationality:
German
born in:
Euskirchen, Köln, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Emil Hermann Fischer, perhaps the greatest organic chemist and a pioneering biochemist, studied chemistry at Bonn after a commercial education. He took his doctorate at Strassburg (Strasbourg) under Baeyer. After teaching in Munich, Erlangen and Würzburg, he succeeded August Wilhelm von Hofmann in Berlin and won the Nobel Prize in 1902. His name is associated with several reactions and syntheses, notably the Fischer phenylhydrazine synthesis, Fischer indole synthesis, Fischer peptide synthesis and the Kiliani-Fischer synthesis (discovered independently, not jointly). He also gave his name to the Fischer projection of carbohydrates