Hans Eugen Fischer

Fischer, Hans Eugen

 

Born July 27, 1881, in Höchst am Main; died Mar. 31, 1945, in Munich. German organic chemist and biochemist; doctor of medicine (1908).

Fischer completed his university studies at Marburg in 1904. He was a professor at universities in Innsbruck (from 1916) and Vienna (from 1918) and at the Technische Hochschule in Munich (1921–45). Fischer’s major works deal with the chemistry of pyrrole and its derivatives. In 1927, Fischer succeeded in synthesizing porphyrin and subsequently the coloring matter of blood (hemin, 1929) and bile (bilirubin, 1931). He demonstrated that the hemoglobin of blood consists of the protein globin and the complex iron compound hemin. In 1940 he established the structures of chlorophylls a and b.

Fischer was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1930.

WORKS

Khimiia pirrola, vol. 1. (With G. Orth.) Leningrad, 1937. (Translated from German.)