Paul Hermann Müller
| Paul Hermann Müller | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
12 January 1899 Olten, Solothurn, Switzerland |
| Died | 12 October 1965 (aged 66) Basel, Switzerland |
| Nationality | Swiss |
| Fields | Chemistry |
| Institutions | J. R. Geigy AG |
| Alma mater | Universität Basel |
| Doctoral advisor | Hans Rupe |
| Known for | Insecticidal applications of DDT |
| Notable awards | Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1948) |
Paul Hermann Müller also known as Pauly Mueller (12 January 1899 – 13 October 1965) was a Swiss chemist who received the 1948 Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine for his 1939 discovery of insecticidal qualities and use of DDT in the control of vector diseases such as malaria and yellow fever.
Müller was born on January 12, 1899 in Olten, Solothurn to Gottlieb and Fanny (née Leypoldt or Leypold) Müller. He was the oldest of four children. His father worked for the Swiss Federal Railways and the family first moved to Lenzburg in Aargau and then to Basel.
Müller went to the "Freie Evangelische Volksschule" (free Protestant peoples school) and later to the lower and upper "Realschule". In that time, he had a small laboratory where he could develop photographic plates or build radio equipment.
In 1916 he left school to work as a laboratory assistant at Dreyfus (or Dreyfuss & Cie) and Company; the next year he became an assistant chemist in the Scientific-Industrial Laboratory of the electrical plant of Lonza A.G. Returning to school in 1918, he obtained his diploma by 1919 and entered Basel University in the same year.
At Basel University he studied chemistry (with a minor in botany and physics) and started to study inorganic chemistry under professor Friedrich Fichter. In 1922 he continued his studies in the organic chemistry lab of Hans Rupe. While working for Rupe as assistant, he received his PhD writing a dissertation entitled Die chemische und elektrochemische Oxidation des as. m-Xylidins und seines Mono- und Di-Methylderivates (The Chemical and Electrochemical Oxidation of Asymmetrical m-Xylidene and its Mono- and Di-methyl Derivatives) in 1925. He graduated with summa cum laude.
On 25 May 1925 Müller began working as a research chemist for the dye division of J. R. Geigy AG in Basel. His first research topics at Geigy concerned synthetic and plant-derived dyes and natural tanning agents. This work led to the production of the synthetic tanning agents Irgatan G, Irgatan FL and Irgatan FLT.
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