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Adolf von Baeyer
1835–1917 · Germany · Born in the 1800s
Nobel Chemistry 1905
Synthesized indigo, studied dyes and the strain in small rings, and founded a great school of organic chemistry.
Nobel Prize work
Nobel 1905 “in recognition of his services in the advancement of organic chemistry and the chemical industry, through his work on organic dyes and hydroaromatic compounds.” He elucidated the structure of indigo and developed laboratory syntheses of it, and created phthalein dyes such as phenolphthalein and fluorescein. His strain theory for small rings and catalytic reduction work shaped both dye chemistry and industrial organic synthesis.