Fischer, Ernst Otto

FISCHER, ERNST OTTO (I9I8-). A German inorganic chemist who won the Nobel prize lor chemistry in 1973 with Geoffrey Wilkinson for their independent work on the chemistry of organomctallic "sandwich compounds. He was the contributor to many publications on organiimeiallic ehemislry. His education and work were primarily in Munich. 

Fischer, Ernst Otto (b. 1918) German chemist noted for his elucidation of the structure of the unusual synthetic compound ferrocene, which is a kind of sandwich with carbon rings as the bread and an iron atom as the fdling. Thousands of such compounds are now known. For this work, Fischer shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in chemistry with Geoffrey Wilkinson. 

Fischer, Ernst Otto, Federal Republic of Germany, Technical University of Munich, Munich and Wilkinson, Sir Geoffrey, Great Britain, Imperial College, London "For their pioneering work, performed independently, on the chemistry of the or-ganometallic, so called sandwich compounds."... 

Ernst Otto Fischer M. Frederick Hawthorne James A. Ibers Steven D. Ittel... 

Ernst Otto Fischer (1), Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, Technical University, Munich, West Germany... 

Despite my bloody start, Ernst Otto Fischer did his best in the following weeks to integrate me in his research group and to make me feel comfortable... 

Fig. 2.11 Ernst Otto Fischer, my friend Frieder Loftier and me in the Alps during the skiing vacation with the Fischer group (March 1960). Frieder also worked for the Diploma degree with Hein and, after he escaped from East Germany, did his Ph.D. with Professor Georg Wittig at the University of Heidelberg...

Although I had to abandon the initial arrangement with Professor Eugene G. Rochow for a postdoctoral position, I was still keen to spend a year abroad and, if possible, at a university in the United States. Ernst Otto Fischer strongly supported my intention and recommended, inter alia, Caltech at Pasadena as a top place. One of his former students, Klaus Plesske, was already there and worked as a postdoc with Professor John H. Richards. 

On the 2nd of October 1963, we left New York again with the Bremen and after a stormy passage over the Atlantic arrived at Bremerhaven one week later. We continued to Munchen, where less than an hour after our arrival, I got a phone call from Ernst Otto Fischer. He asked me whether we could meet immediately. The reason for the hurry was a vacancy at Professor Hieber s institute at the TH suitable for a candidate interested to do a Habilitation. Fischer indicated that the faculty at the TH had not yet decided who should succeed Hieber in the autumn of the following year, but that he would possibly receive the invitation. 

Fig. 2.19 Ernst Otto Fischer and Franz Hein talking to each other at Hein s farewell symposium in Jena 1969. Standing behind Franz Hein is Rudolf Taube, at that time Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Greifswald, Germany...

Fig. 2.21 Ernst Otto Fischer and Geoffrey Wilkinson dancing at the final reception of the Conference on Organometallic Chemistry at Ettal, Germany, in July 1974 (photo by courtesy of Professor Wolfgang Beck)...

Fig. 2.23 Max Schmidt as Dean of the Faculty of Science presenting Professor Walter Hieber the Diploma of Doctor honoris causa. Left of Hieber is Ernst Otto Fischer who gave the laudatio at the ceremony held at Wurzburg in 1969 (photo by courtesy from the late Professor Max Schmidt)...

Fig. 2.39 Ernst Otto Fischer at the time when he received the Nobel Prize (photo by courtesy from the late Professor Max Schmidt)...

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