Heinrich Wieland was one of the greatest organic chemists of the century, admired for the breadth of his knowledge and his devotion to arduous, painstaking research. Wieland is known for his studies on the structures of important complex natural products, from toad poisons to butterfly pigments. He also made major contributions to biochemistry, especially in the study of the mechanism of biological oxidation. His most famous work, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1927, was the determination of the molecular structure of the bile acids. This research combined superb experimental skill with precise deductive reasoning and remains a model of organic chemical investigation.

Heinrich Otto Wieland was born on June 4, 1877, in Pforzheim, Germany, to Theodor and Elise Blom Wieland. Theodor Wieland was a pharmaceutical chemist, and Heinrich studied the subject in school in Pforzheim. At that time, instead of studying at a single university...