The German organic chemist Hans Fischer (1881-1945) was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1930 for his researches into the constitution of hemin and chlorophyll and especially for his synthesis of hemin.

Hans Fischer, the son of Dr. Eugen Fischer, a manufacturer of chemicals, was born at Höchst am Main, on July 27, 1881. He entered the University of Lausanne in 1899, read chemistry and medicine, and subsequently transferred to the University of Marburg, where he graduated in chemistry in 1904. Two years later he qualified in medicine at Munich. In 1908 he graduated as a doctor of medicine at Munich. He was assistant to the chemist Emil Fischer at Berlin (1908-1910) and did some early work on bile pigments at Munich (1910-1912).

After a year as a teacher of internal medicine and three as lecturer in physiology at Munich, Fischer held the chair of medical chemistry at Innsbruck (1916-1918) and...