The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Fischer, Emil

FISCHER, Emil, German chemist: b. Euskirchen, 1852. After studying at Strassburg, in 1879 he was appointed professor extraordinary at the University of Munich and became professor of chemistry at Erlangen 1882, filling a similar chair at Würzburg 1885. He was appointed professor of organic chemistry at the University of Berlin 1892, succeeding the celebrated A. W. Hofmann; and in 1902 received the Noble prize for chemical research. His researches were along the lines of synthetic sugar, in which field he was a pioneer; and he also made significant investigations of the composition of the “purine group,” the polypeptides (synthetic proteids) and the depsides. He is author of ‘Anleitung zur Darstellung organischer Präparate’ (Eng. trans. by Stanford, 1909), a popular text-book; numerous papers which have since been collected into book form, and ‘Die Chemie der Kohlenhydrate und ihre Bedentung für die Physiologie’ (1894), and ‘Chemical Research in its Bearings on National Welfare’ (1912).