Baeyer, (Johann Friedrich Wilhelm) Adolf von

Baeyer, (Johann Friedrich Wilhelm) Adolf von (1835-1917), German chemist and Nobel laureate, who first synthesized the dye indigo, which previously could be obtained only from certain species of the indigo plant. Von Baeyer was born in Berlin. He studied chemistry under the German chemists Robert Bunsen and Friedrich Kekulé von Stradonitz. Von Baeyer subsequently did graduate work at the University of Berlin, and became Professor of Chemistry at the University of Munich in 1875. In the early 1880s he synthesized indigo and determined the dye's molecular structure. For his work with indigo von Baeyer received the Davy Medal of the Royal Society in 1881 and the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1905. His other achievements include synthesizing uric acid, work done in cooperation with with the German chemist Emil Fischer. His theoretical research covered almost the entire field of organic chemistry.