One of the world's foremost biochemists, Otto Warburg's achievements include discovering the mechanism of cell oxidation and identifying the iron-enzyme complex, which catalyzes this process. He also made great strides in developing new experimental techniques, such as a method for studying the respiration of intact cells using a device he invented. In 1931, Warburg received a Nobel Prize for medicine and physiology in 1931.

Otto Heinrich Warburg was born on October 8, 1883, in Freiburg, Germany, to Emil Gabriel Warburg and Elizabeth Gaertner. Warburg was one of four children and the only boy. His father was a physicist of note and held the prestigious Chair in Physics at University of Berlin. The Warburg household often hosted prominent guests from the German scientific community, such as physicists Albert Einstein, Max Planck, Emil Fischer--the leading organic chemist of the late-nineteenth century, and Walther Nernst--the period's leading physical chemist.

Warburg studied chemistry at the University...