Heinrich Otto Wieland

Heinrich Otto Wieland was born on 4 June 1877 in Germany. He built his career as a chemist studying the molecular architecture of substances most people never think about: bile acids, the compounds the liver produces to break down fats. His work mapped their structure with enough precision that the Nobel committee awarded him the 1927 Prize in Chemistry. He died on 5 August 1957, eighty years old, his name now attached to a class of molecules that still anchor biochemistry textbooks.