1881-1945

German chemist whose investigation of the properties of blood and bile led to the synthesis of bilirubin, a compound produced by the breakdown of hemoglobin from red blood cells. Fischer worked at the Second Medical Clinic in Munich, and the First Berlin Chemical Institute, before becoming a lecturer on internal medicine and later physiology in Munich. His studies of blood pigments, bile, and leaves, specifically haem and haemoglobin, earned him the 1930 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.