Hermann Emil Fischer | |
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Hermann Emil Fischer
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Born | Hermann Emil Louis Fischer 9 October 1852 Euskirchen, Rhine Province |
Died | 15 July 1919 Berlin, Germany |
(aged 66)
Nationality | Germany |
Fields | Chemistry |
Institutions |
University of Munich (1875–81) University of Erlangen (1881–88) University of Würzburg (1888–92) University of Berlin (1892–1919) |
Alma mater |
University of Bonn University of Strasbourg |
Doctoral advisor | Adolf von Baeyer |
Doctoral students |
Otto Diels Otto Ruff Walter A. Jacobs Ludwig Knorr Oskar Piloty Julius Tafel |
Known for | Study of sugars & purines |
Notable awards |
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Hermann Emil Louis Fischer FRS FRSE FCS (9 October 1852 – 15 July 1919) was a German chemist and 1902 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He also discovered the Fischer esterification. He developed the Fischer projection, a symbolic way of drawing asymmetric carbon atoms. He never used his first given name, and was known throughout his life simply as Emil Fischer.
Fischer was born in Euskirchen, near Cologne, the son of Laurenz Fischer, a businessman, and his wife Julie Poensgen. After graduating he wished to study natural sciences, but his father compelled him to work in the family business until determining that his son was unsuitable. Fischer then attended the University of Bonn in 1871, but switched to the University of Strasbourg in 1872. He earned his doctorate in 1874 under Adolf von Baeyer with his study of phthalein and was appointed to a position at the university.
In 1875 Baeyer was asked to succeed Liebig at the University of Munich and Fischer went there with him to become an assistant in organic chemistry.
In 1878 Fischer qualified as a Privatdozent at Munich, where he was appointed Associate Professor of Analytical Chemistry in 1879. In the same year he was offered, but refused, the Chair of Chemistry at Aachen.