FISHER Hermann Emil

Fischer, Hermann Emil (Fischer, Hermann Emil) (1852-1919) (Germany). Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1902.
Born Oct. 9, 1852 in Eyskirhene, Rhine riparian town near Bonn, the son of a prosperous merchant Lorenz Fisher and Julia Poensgen. Before entering the public school Wetzlar during the three years studied with a private teacher. The spring of 1869 graduated with honors from the Bonn school.

Within two years he worked in his father's firm, but showed little interest in the case, and the spring of 1871 his father sent him to the University of Bonn. There he attended lectures by the great chemist Friedrich August Kekulц? von Stradonitz. Under the influence of Kekulц? von Stradonitz, pays little attention to the experiment, the interest in chemistry at the Fisher began to weaken

. In 1872, following the example of his cousin, . known in the future chemist Philip Otto Fischer (1852-1932), . he joined Strassburgsky University, . to learn from the young, . but the well-known professor of organic Bayer AG (Nobel Prize in Chemistry, . 1905),
. Fischer proceeded to chemical research and, together with Otto synthesized a new substance - phenylhydrazine. After receiving his doctorate in 1874 became a lecturer at the University Strassburgskom.

The next year, Bayer received the post in the University of Munich, and Fisher became his assistant. Financially independent and free from administrative and teaching duties, Fisher was able to concentrate on studies. In collaboration with his cousin Otto he used phenylhydrazine to examine the substances used in the manufacture of organic dyes.

Becoming in 1885 Professor of Chemistry University of Erlangen (Wц?rzburg), Fisher studied the purine derivatives and studied the sugar.

Another task of chemists at that time was the systematic study of methods of synthesis, structure and properties of important classes of natural substances - nucleotides, carbohydrates and proteins.

In the field of nucleotides Emil Fischer studied the purine derivatives are one of the structural bases of this class of substances. He synthesized the natural derivatives of purines: alkaloids caffeine, theobromine and theophylline, and components of animal waste - xanthine, hypoxanthine, uric acid, adenine and guanine (the last two substances - components of nucleic acids). Fischer synthesized purine itself (1898).

In carbohydrate chemistry key issue was to establish the configuration and the configuration between a monosaccharide molecules that can exist in several stereoisomeric forms.

Fisher first identified the configuration of all natural sugars, in 1890 he undertook a complete synthesis of mannose, fructose and glucose. As a result of research by Fisher at the end of the 19. this area of chemistry has become a systematic science. He offered a convenient range of sugars, and simple formulas (spatial formulas Fisher) and their classification. Method of synthesis of the major derivatives of sugars - glucosides, among which, incidentally, include many natural nucleotides and physiologically active substances.

In 1892 became director of the Chemical Institute of Berlin University, and held that post until his death.

In 1902, Fischer was awarded the Nobel Prize 'in recognition of special merits of c synthesis of sugars and purines'. It belongs to the few number of those scholars who re-nominated for the Nobel Prize (among these winners was, for example, the physiologist Ivan Pavlov). This was in 1916 and 1919.

Fischer said in his Nobel lecture that "gradually the veil, through which Nature has concealed its secrets, was ajar in matters relating to carbohydrate. Despite this, the chemical riddle of life can not be solved until then, until organic chemistry to explore other, more complex subject - whites'. They turned Fischer and. Developed methods of separation and analysis of amino acids and has established a number of amino acids that comprise protein molecules, as well as the interconnection between these amino acids. He synthesized the first polypeptide (a combination of amino acids) and classified more than forty types of proteins, based on the number and types of amino acids, formed during their hydrolysis. Thus, it was the first who synthesized polypeptides. First (1902) it was a dipeptide, and later (1907) octapeptide.

More Fisher discovered that the enzymes react only with those substances, which have a chemical affinity. This enabled him to formulate a well-known thesis of the enzyme-substrate according to the principle of 'key - lock'. He first applied the enzymes for the synthesis of chemicals, and the ability of the enzyme to react with only one of the stereoisomeric forms of optically active material used to create the method of separation of stereoisomers.

In 1903 Fischer synthesized soporific - barbital (later named barbitalom).

Works of Fisher identified the main approaches and directions in the development of chemical studies of XX. three major classes of natural substances - nucleotides, proteins and carbohydrates.

Willstцєtter (Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1915) considered the Fisher 'classic without equal, a master of Organic Chemistry, both in analysis and in synthesis, and in personal on a wonderful person'. In his honor Germanskoe Chemical Society in 1912, during the life of a scientist has established a Medal of Emil Fischer.

Being a disciple of the founder of the world-famous scientific school A. von Baeyer, Fischer has created his own scientific school. Among his pupils - Nobel Laureates in Chemistry F. Pregl (1923), A. Windaus (1928), O. Diels (1950), as well as in physiology or medicine (1931) - Otto Heinrich Warburg (1883-1970)

. The death of his wife and the subsequent deaths of two sons during the First World War, together with the lack of immediately after the war for the right conditions to work in laboratories Fisher introduced into a deep depression, . moreover, prolonged exposure to toxic phenylhydrazine caused chronic eczema, . and then developed a tumor,
. After the news of July 11, 1919 about the diagnosis - inoperable colon cancer - Fischer poisoned with potassium cyanide and died in Berlin on 15 July at the age of 66. In his will, the amount of 750 000 marks, he gave the Academy of Sciences for the establishment of the Fund facilitate the works of young scientists E. Fisher.