Ernst Otto Fischer was a German
chemist and educator who was jointly awarded the ‘Nobel Prize in
Chemistry’ in 1973 along with English chemist Geoffrey Wilkinson for
their independent but related leading-edge work in metallocenes and
other aspects in the field of organometallic chemistry. This pioneering
work of Fischer included identifying an entirely new technique of
combining organic substances and metals. He examined a newly developed
organometallic compound ferrocene (chemical formula - Fe(C5H5)2) and
came to the conclusion that it is composed of two carbon rings each of
five sides, bound on opposite sides of an iron atom. Moving on he began
synthesizing other metallocenes like cobaltocene and nickelocene. These
organometallic compounds are also called ‘sandwich compounds’. After
obtaining PhD from the ‘Technical University of Munich’ he went on to
become a Lecturer of Chemistry at the university. His career advanced
steadily that saw him holding the position of a Professor of Inorganic
Chemistry at the ‘University of Munich’, subsequently becoming the
Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the ‘Technical University of Munich’
and finally holding the Chair of Inorganic Chemistry at the ‘Technical
University of Munich’. Apart from the ‘Nobel Prize’ he was the recipient
of the ‘Göttingen Academy Prize for Chemistry’ in 1957 and the ‘GCS
Alfred Stock Memorial Prize’ in 1959.
Childhood & Early Life
- He was born on November 10, 1918, in Solln near Munich, Germany, to Dr. Karl Tobias Fischer and his wife, Valentine Danzer as their third child. His father was a Professor of Physics at the ‘Technical College of Munich’.
- He attended elementary school for four years and then enrolled at the ‘Theresiengymnasium’, the oldest grammar school in Munich in 1929 from where he completed his graduation in 1937 with Abitur.
- While he was on his two years of compulsory military service, the ‘World War II’ started that saw him serving in France, Poland and Russia.
- He started studying chemistry at the ‘Technical University of Munich’ during the later part of 1941 while he was on a military study leave. After the Americans released him in the autumn of 1945, he resumed his studies in 1946 following reopening of the ‘Technical University of Munich’ and completed BS in Chemistry from the university in 1949.
- He was inducted in the Inorganic Chemistry Institute at the ‘Technical University of Munich’ as a scientific assistant of Professor Walter Hieber, who was considered father of metal carbonyl chemistry. Under the guidance of Hieber, Fischer worked on his doctoral thesis titled ‘The Mechanisms of Carbon Monoxide Reactions of Nickel (II) Salts in the Presence of Dithionites and Sulfoxylates’ and earned PhD in 1952.
- Accepting invitation of Hieber, he continued his research work at the college and went on to focus his studies on transition of metal and organometallic chemistry. Through his university lecture thesis, ‘The Metal Complexes of Cyclopentadienes and Indenes’, he pointed out that the molecular structure of ferrocene assumed by Pauson and Keally might be incorrect.
Awards & Achievements
- He received the ‘Nobel Prize in Chemistry’ in 1973 along with English chemist Geoffrey Wilkinson.
Personal Life & Legacy
- Fischer never married in his life.
- He passed away on July 23, 2007, in Munich, Germany, at the age of 88 years.
