Emil Hermann Fischer, more commonly known as Emil Fischer, was an eminent German chemist. He received the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1902 in recognition of his work in the sugar and purine groups.
Emil Fischer helped to reorganize the teaching of chemistry, and to establish research facilities. His work in organic chemistry was primarily on the constitution and synthesis of substances present in organisms.
Fischer laid the chemical foundations for biochemistry by his study of sugars, enzymes, purines, and proteins. He was also instrumental in the discovery of barbiturates, a class of sedative drugs used for insomnia, epilepsy, anxiety, and anaesthesia.
Fischer’s keen understanding of scientific problems, his intuition and love of truth, and his insistence on experimental proof of hypotheses, marked him as one of the truly great scientists of all time.