Emil Fischer

For other people named Emil Fischer, seeEmil Fischer (disambiguation).

Hermann Emil Fischer
Fischerc.1895
Born	Hermann Emil Louis Fischer (1852-10-09)9 October 1852 Euskirchen,Rhine Province
Died	15 July 1919(1919-07-15)(aged 66) Berlin,Germany
Nationality	German
Alma mater	University of Bonn University of Strasbourg
Known for	Study ofsugars&purines
Awards	Davy Medal(1890) ForMemRS(1899) Nobel Prize in Chemistry(1902) Faraday Lectureship Prize(1907) Elliott Cresson Medal(1913)
Scientific career
Fields	Chemistry
Institutions	University of Munich(1875–81) University of Erlangen(1881–88) University of Würzburg(1888–92) University of Berlin(1892–1919)
Doctoral advisor	Adolf von Baeyer Friedrich August Kekulé
Doctoral students	Alfred Stock Otto Diels Otto Ruff Walter A. Jacobs Ludwig Knorr Oskar Piloty Julius Tafel

Hermann Emil Louis FischerFRSFRSEFCS(German pronunciation:[ˈeːmiːlˈfɪʃɐ];9 October 1852 – 15 July 1919) was a Germanchemistand1902 recipientof theNobel Prize in Chemistry.He discovered theFischer esterification.He also developed theFischer projection,a symbolic way of drawing asymmetric carbon atoms. He also hypothesized lock and key mechanism of enzyme action. He never used his first given name, and was known throughout his life simply as Emil Fischer.

Early years and career

Fischer was born inEuskirchen,nearCologne,the son of Laurenz Fischer, a businessman, and his wife Julie Poensgen. After graduating he wished to studynatural sciences,but his father compelled him to work in the family business until determining that his son was unsuitable. Fischer then attended theUniversity of Bonnin 1871, but switched to theUniversity of Strasbourgin 1872.He earned his doctorate in 1874 underAdolf von Baeyerwith his study ofphthaleins.Fischer remained with Baeyer in Strassburg as an independent research student. In the fall of 1874, he was appointed assistant of the organic laboratory. There, he discoveredphenylhydrazine.This compound reacts with carboxylic compounds (aldehydesandketones) producing crystalline solids. The phenylhydrazones of sugars allowed him to develop his work on the synthesis of sugars and purines, which earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1902. Using the phenylhydrazone of piruvic acid, he develop the synthesis of indole.

In 1875, von Baeyer was asked to succeedJustus von Liebigat theUniversity of Munichand 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 1882, he was appointed professor of chemistry at theUniversity of Erlangenand in 1885 at theUniversity of Würzburg.In 1892 he succeededvon Hofmannas professor of chemistry at theUniversity of Berlin.

Research

He investigated the derivatives of phenylhydriazines, establishing their relation to thediazocompounds, and he noted the readiness with which they entered into combination with other substances, giving origin to a wealth of hitherto unknown compounds. Of such condensation products undoubtedly the most important are thehydrazones,which result from the interaction withaldehydesandketones.His observations, published in 1886, that such hydrazones, by treatment withhydrochloric acidorzinc chloride,yielded derivatives ofindole,the parent substance ofindigo,were a confirmation of the views advanced by von Baeyer on the subject of indigo and the many substances related to it.

He next turned to thefuchsine(then called "rosaniline" )magenta dyes,and in collaboration with his cousin Otto Fischer, he published papers in 1878 and 1879 which established that these dyes were derivatives oftriphenylmethane.Emil Fischer's next research was concerned with compounds related touric acid.Here the ground had been broken by von Baeyer, but Fischer greatly advanced the field of knowledge of thepurines.In 1881 and 1882 he published papers which established the formulae ofuric acid,xanthine,caffeine(achieving the first synthesis),theobromineand some other compounds of this group. After purine itself was isolated, a variety of derivatives were prepared, some of which were patented in view of possible therapeutical applications.

Fischer is particularly noted for his work on sugars. Among his early discoveries related to hydrazine was thatphenylhydrazinereacted with sugars to form substances which he namedosazones,and which, being highly crystalline and readily formed, served to identify such carbohydrates more definitely than had been previously possible.Later, among other work, he is noted for theorganic synthesisofD-(+)-glucose.He showed how to deduce the formulae of the 16stereoisomericglucoses, and prepared several stereoisomerides, helping to confirm theLe Bel–Van 't Hoff ruleof theasymmetric carbonatom.

In the field of enzymology, Fischer is known for his proposal of"the lock and key"model as a mechanism of substrate binding.

Fischer was also instrumental in the discovery ofbarbiturates,a class of sedative drugs used for insomnia, epilepsy, anxiety, and anesthesia. Along with the physicianJosef von Mering,he helped to launch the first barbiturate sedative,barbital,in 1904.He next carried out pioneering work onproteins.By the introduction of new methods, he succeeded in breaking down the complexalbuminsintoamino acidsand other nitrogenous compounds, the constitutions of most of which were known, and by bringing about the recombination of these units, he preparedsynthetic peptideswhich approximated to the natural products. His research group synthesised the first free dipeptide (Glycine-Glycine) in 1901.By 1906 about 65 peptides of different chain length and amino acid composition had been made by his research group. His researches made from 1899 to 1906 were published in 1907 with the titleUntersuchungen über Aminosauren, Polypeptides und Proteine.Three years later the total number of peptides exceeded 100, with the longest being an 18 amino acid peptide containing 15 glycine and three leucine units. The 18 amino acid peptide gave the standard responses to tests for proteins used by physiological chemists - a positiveBiurettest, precipitation by inorganic salts and cleavage by proteolytic enzymes

Personal life and death

Fischer married Agnes Gerlach in 1888. She died seven years later, leaving him a widower with three sons. The younger two died during their military service in World War I, but the oldest,Hermann,became an organic chemist.Emil Fischer died in Berlin on 15 July 1919 at the age of 66.

Honours, awards, and legacy

Monument to Emil Fischer inBerlin

In 1897 he put forward the idea to create theInternational Atomic Weights Commission.Fischer was elected aForeign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1899.He was awarded the 1902 Nobel Prize in chemistry "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his work on sugar and purine syntheses."He was elected an International Member of the United StatesNational Academy of Sciencesin 1904, an International Honorary Member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciencesin 1908, and an International Member of theAmerican Philosophical Societyin 1909.

Many names of 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–Speier esterification
• Fischer glycosidation
• Kiliani–Fischer synthesis

TheFischer–Tropsch processis named afterFranz Emil Fischer,who headed theMax Planck Institute for Coal Researchin Muelheim, and is unrelated to Fischer.

References

"From My Life", an English translation of "Aus Meinem Leben", Emil Fischer's autobiography. D. M. and E. J. Behrman, Springer Verlag, 2022.

External links

• Emil Fischeron Nobelprize.orgincluding his Nobel Lecture Nobel Lecture, 12 December 1902Syntheses in the Purine and Sugar Group
• Eminent Chemists of Our TimeBy Benjamin Harrow pages 216–239, published 1920 by Von Nostrand Company at books.google.
• Aders Plimmer, R. H. (July 1907)."The work of Emil Fischer and his school on the chemistry of the proteins".Science Progress in the Twentieth Century.2(5): 88–120.
• Guide to the Emil Fischer PapersatThe Bancroft Library
• Text-book of Physiological Chemistry in Thirty Lecturesby Emil Abderhalden, translated by William Thomas Hall and George Defren; published 1908 by Wiley Company, has many technical references to Fischer's work in Chemistry.
• American Journal of Diseases of Children 1911volume 2 by the American Medical Association also refers to Fischer's work.
• An Introduction to the History of Medicine: With Medical Chronologyby Fielding Hudson Garrison, page 708 refers to Fischer and Merings discovery of the drugsveronal(1904) and proponal(1905), published 1921 by Saunders Company.
• 1914 Year Book of the American Pharmaceutical Association,page 438 abstracts Fischer and Strauss's work on Phenol-Glucosides – Synthetic Production from Berlin d.D Chem. Germany, page 45(1912) No. 12.
• Texts on Wikisource:
  • "Fischer, Emil".New International Encyclopedia.1905.
  • "Fischer, Emil".Encyclopædia Britannica(11th ed.). 1911.
  • "Fischer, Emil".Encyclopedia Americana.1920.