Friedrich Wöhler (31 July 1800 - 23 September 1882) was a German chemist, best-known for his synthesis of urea, but also the first to isolate several chemical elements.
He was born in Eschersheim, which belonged to Hanau at the time but is nowadays a district of Frankfurt am Main. In 1823 Wöhler finished his study of medicine in Heidelberg at the laboratory of Leopold Gmelin, who arranged for him to work under Jöns Jakob Berzelius in Stockholm. H...
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Friedrich Wöhler (31 July 1800 - 23 September 1882) was a German chemist, best-known for his synthesis of urea, but also the first to isolate several chemical elements.
He was born in Eschersheim, which belonged to Hanau at the time but is nowadays a district of Frankfurt am Main. In 1823 Wöhler finished his study of medicine in Heidelberg at the laboratory of Leopold Gmelin, who arranged for him to work under Jöns Jakob Berzelius in Stockholm. He taught chemistry from 1826 to 1831 at the Polytechnic School in Berlin until 1839 when he was stationed at the Higher Polytechnic School at Kassel. Afterwards, he became Ordinary Professor of Chemistry in the University of Göttingen, where he remained until his death in 1882. In 1834, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Wöhler is regarded as a pioneer in organic chemistry as a result of him (accidentally) synthesizing urea in the Wöhler synthesis in 1828. This synthesis was a landmark in the history of...
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