Paul Karrer's long and distinguished career in chemistry included the study of sugars and plant pigments, subjects that led him to the description and synthesis of vitamin A as well as several other vitamins. Karrer's work with vitamins helped to solve their chemical riddle, enabling physiologists to define the way in which the body utilizes them. In 1937 Karrer shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for research that incorporated the vitamins A and B.

Paul Karrer was born in Moscow, Russia, on April 21, 1889, the son of Julie Lerch Karrer and Paul Karrer, a Swiss dentist who was practicing in Russia. At three years of age Karrer and his family returned to Switzerland, initially to Zürich, but later settling in the canton, of Aargau, a region in the north of the country. Karrer was educated in schools in this canton, and it was while in secondary school that...