The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Fischer, Emil
(´ml fsh´r) (KEY) , 18521919, German organic chemist. He is especially noted for his researches on the structure and synthesis of sugars and of purines and purine base derivatives, e.g., caffeine; for this work he received the 1902 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. His many other valuable discoveries include a method of synthesizing polypeptides. He was an assistant of Adolf von Baeyer and was professor at the universities of Erlangen (188285), Würzburg (188592), and Berlin (from 1892).