Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer was a German organic chemist best known for synthesizing a wide variety of important compounds, including barbituric acid and indigo . Additionally, Baeyer also conducted research on phthalein dyes, concentrating his later research efforts to expanded knowledge of synthetic compounds and to develop a theory explaining the stability of five- and six-carbon rings. For his accomplishments in compound synthesis, Baeyer was awarded the 1905 Nobel Prize in chemistry.

Baeyer was born in Berlin on October 31, 1835. His father, Johann Jacob Baeyer, was an officer in the Prussian army who also conducted geodetic surveys for the Prussian government, and his mother, Eugenie Hitzig, was the daughter of a prominent authority on criminal law and historian of literature. Baeyer developed an interest in science at an early age, and chemistry was the subject that intrigued him most. In his autobiography, Erinnerungen aus meinem Leben, he reports that...