On 13 November 1930, the German scientist Hans Fischer was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He was 49 years old at the time and was a professor of organic chemistry at the Technical University of Munich. The Prize was awarded in recognition of his efforts and achievements in discovering the molecular structures of some vital pigments such as chlorophyll in plants and heme—a component of hemoglobin—in blood, in addition to his ability to synthesize heme from simple organic compounds. Fischer established his name in the field of pyrrole chemistry, a type of organic compound.
Upbringing and Education
Fischer was born on 27 June 1881 in Hochst, Germany, which is located on the banks of the Main River. The city was famous for its chemical industries and his father was the director of a company specialized in manufacturing chemical materials. He studied at the elementary school in Stuttgart and obtained his high school diploma from a school in Weisbaden, where he studied the classical history of the ancient Greeks and Romans.
After studying the humanities at high school, he joined the University of Lausanne in Switzerland in 1899 to study chemistry and medicine at the same time. He obtained a doctorate degree in chemistry from the University of Marburg in 1904; four years later, he also obtained his University degree in medicine from the University of Munich.
Professional Life
After finishing his studies, he worked for two years as an assistant to the prominent chemist Emil Fischer, who won the Nobel Prize in 1902. Hans Fischer then studied peptides and sugars. Later, Friedrich von Müller invited him to work together in Munich, and he began studying the yellow bilirubin pigment and how it is related to blood pigments, in addition to the similarities and differences between them.
He worked as lecturer in Munich for four years. In 1916, Hans Fischer moved to Austria to work as a professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Innsbruck for two years, then worked in the University of Vienna for three years. The Technical University of Munich was the last stop on his professional journey, where he worked as a professor of organic chemistry.
During his academic and research career, he devoted his efforts to study the pyrrole compounds, bile pigments, and other related compounds. He was also a successful teacher as he taught many students who later became accomplished chemists and distinguished academics in Germany and abroad.
Remarkable Achievements
Hans Fischer devoted three decades of his life to unlocking the secrets of vital pigments such as hemoglobin in blood, chlorophyll in plants, bilirubin, and some other bile pigments. After extensive work, Fischer was able to discover the molecular structure of heme which consisted of four pyrrole rings linked together by bridges with an iron atom in the center.
He was then able to synthesize heme in 1929, and then moved on to discover the structure of chlorophyll and the method of its synthesis. After that, he moved on to study bile pigments, such as bilirubin and biliverdin, then discovering their chemical structure and the method of their synthesis. He was also able to synthesize more than 130 porphyrin compounds. Hans Fischer published more than 300 papers, most of them in famous scientific journals in chemistry; he also co-authored three volumes of a book about the pyrrole chemistry.
In Recognition of his Efforts
He was awarded the Liebig Meorial Medal, the Davy Medal, and the Nobel Prize. Harvard University also awarded him an honorary doctorate and a lunar crater was named after him and his professor Emil Fischer. Hans Fischer's researches have contributed to unlocking the secrets of blood and plants, which also paved the way for researchers to study natural dyes.
References
chemindigest.com
chemistry.msu.edu