Emil Fischer (1852-1919) was a German organic chemist known for discovering caffeine and other related purines. In 1902, he received a Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work. He died on 15 July 1919.
Wiki/Biography
Emil Fischer was born on Saturday, 9 October 1852 (age 66 years; at the time of death) in Euskirchen, Rhine Province, Germany. His Zodiac sign is Libra. He was home-tutored for an initial three years and later studied at HöhereBürgerschule (Higher Public School) in Euskirchen. After that, he studied for two more years in the Gymnasium at Bonn and passed from high school in 1869. Before pursuing further studies, he joined his father’s business and assisted him in solving chemistry-related problems in brewing and dye making. He joined the University of Bonn in 1871, where he attended the classes of Rudolf Clausius and August Kekule. In 1872, he moved to the University of Strasbourg along with his cousin Otto Fischer to earn his doctorate under Adolph von Baeyer, who was the director of the chemical institute at the time. In 1874, he received his Ph.D. at the University of Strasbourg for writing a thesis on fluorescein and orcinphthalein.
Family
Parents & Siblings
Emil Fischer’s father, Laurenz Fischer, was a local businessman who ran dye-making and brewery units and a lumber business. His mother’s name is Julie Fischer. He had five older sisters.
Wife & Children
In 1888, Emil Fischer got married to Agnes Gerlach, daughter of Joseph von Gerlach, a professor of anatomy at Erlangen University. His wife passed away in 1895. The couple had three sons named Hermann Otto Laurenz Fischer (1888-1960), Walter (1891-1916), who was killed in combat in WWI, and Alfred (1894-1917), who killed himself at the age of 25. The eldest son, Hermann Otto Laurenz Fischer, survived WWI and pursued a career in biochemistry after obtaining his Ph.D. from Berlin University.
Religion
He followed Christianity, and his family was Protestant. ((Pioneers in Polymer Science – Google Books))
Signature/Autograph
Emil Fischer’s signature
Career
Academic Career
He was appointed as assistant instructor at Strasburg University in 1874. In 1875, Emil Fischer went to the University of Munich to become an assistant in Organic chemistry to Von Baeyer. He qualified to be a faculty member in 1878 and was appointed as a Privatdozent for analytical chemistry in 1879.
Emil Fischer (sitting third from right) in 1878
In the same year, he was offered the Chair of Chemistry at Aachen, which he declined. In 1881, Fischer went to the University of Erlangen, where he was appointed to replace Jacob Volhard, a German chemist. Emil Fischer worked for seven years in Erlangen. In 1888, he accepted a professorship at Würzburg. Later, he moved to the University of Berlin When he was asked to succeed A. W. Hofmann as the Chair of Chemistry. Emil Fischer remained at the University of Berlin for twenty years until he died in 1919.
Scientific research
Dyes and Phenylhydrazine
Emil Fischer worked on triphenylmethane dyes at Strasburg. He and his cousin, Otto Fischer, continued their work in Munich, where they proposed a new theory on the constitution of triphenyl-methane dyes and proved it correct experimentally.
Study of purines
He worked on the active principles of coffee, tea, and cocoa in Erlangen and discovered a family of bases called purines. He established the constitution of a series of compounds in this field, eventually synthesizing them.
Study of sugars
In 1884, Fischer started his work on sugars while still working on purines. To start with the research, he chose to study glucose and carried out the tasks of finding the shape of the carbon skeleton, and the nature, location, and spatial positioning of its functional groups. His great success was when he prepared glucose, fructose, and mannose starting from glycerol in 1890. In the span of three years (1891-1894), he determined the stereochemical configuration of all the known sugars.
Emil Fischer in his laboratory
Lock and Key principle
In 1894, he discovered an important study of glucosides, which he had prepared by methylation of glucose, exhibiting perfect specificity to enzymes in hydrolysis. He named it the lock-and-key principle model of enzyme hydrolysis.
Studies on proteins
Between 1899 and 1908 he studied proteins and made several discoveries concerning their properties, reactions, analysis, and synthesis. In this process, he discovered how the amino acids are linked together in proteins and peptides, and called the linkage ‘peptide bond’. He further continued his work on the synthesis of peptides.
Other notable works
Emil Fischer continued to contribute in other areas of research like the enzymes and the analysis of lichens which he found during his hikes in the Black Forest, esterification studies, experimental verification of tetrahedral asymmetry at carbon and also substances used in tanning and much more.
Awards & Honours
- Davy Medal (1890)
- Leopoldina’s Cothenius Medal (1898)
- Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1902)
Emil Fischer won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1902
- Helmholtz Medal (1909)
- Prussian Order of Merit and Maximilian Order of Arts and Sciences (1913)
- Elliott Cresson Medal (1913)
- He was conferred with honorary doctorates from various universities like Manchester, Cambridge (England), and Brussels.
- He was also made a Prussian Geheimrat (Excellenz).
- The Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (The Society of German Chemists) has instituted ‘The Emil Fischer Medal’ to honour scientists for extraordinary credits in organic chemistry.
- He was a member of several societies such as The Royal Society (ForMemRS) (1899), the United States National Academy of Sciences (1904), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1908), the American Philosophical Society (1909), and brewery research and training institute.
Legacy
Chemical Reactions
The names of many chemical reactions and concepts are named after him.
- Fischer indole synthesis
- Fischer projection
- Fischer oxazole synthesis
- Fischer peptide synthesis
- Fischer phenylhydrazine and oxazone reaction
- Fischer reduction
- Fischer-Speier esterification
- Fischer glycosidation
Streets and Buildings
- Several streets and schools are named after Emil Fischer.
- A centre at the University of Erlangen is named after him.
- The Emil Fischer Haus, Humboldt-Universität’s Institute of Chemistry on the Adlershof Campus, is named after him.
- The ‘Emil Fischer monument’ located at Robert Koch Platz at the entrance to the Charite-Mitte Hospital campus, Mitte, Berlin, Germany was built in his honour.
Emil Fischer statue at Robert Koch Platz at the entrance to the Charite-Mitte Hospital campus, Mitte, Berlin, Germany
Death
Emil Fischer was diagnosed with cancer, the reason for which was his long-term handling of phenylhydrazine; however due to many losses in the last years of his life, he died of overdosing on potassium cyanide on 15 July 1919 (age 66 years). He is buried at Kleist-Grabstätte by the Kleiner Wannsee, Berlin.
Facts/Trivia
- Emil Fischer enjoyed leisure walks among the hills at Würzburg. He also made frequent holidays to the black forest in southwest Germany, bordering France.
- He rejected an offer by BASF for the position of director of research in 1883, because of his passion for academics.
Emil Fischer
- Emil Fischer’s eldest son, Hermann Otto Laurenz Fischer, gave away all of his scientific articles, writings, letters, and books to UC, Berkeley. This collection forms the Emil Fischer Library at UC, Berkeley.
- His family allowed him to pursue further studies after his ardent desire to study did not diminish while assisting his father in the family business.
- He was often called ‘the secret prince of chemists’ because he greatly influenced higher education, scientific research, and industrial development in Germany.
- He had extraordinary memory which enabled him to memorize manuscripts of his lectures.
- He started a radiochemistry laboratory at the University of Berlin, where Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner worked on uranium fission.
- In 1900, he convinced the German government to develop a chemical institute devoted to research, hence the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry was built in Berlin under the guidance of Fischer.
- Emil Fischer suffered from frequent attacks of gastritis since a young age. He once had to take a year-long leave at the age of eighteen, and he refused an offer to take the Chair of Chemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich.
