Weigert, Fritz

views updated

WEIGERT, FRITZ

WEIGERT, FRITZ (1876–1947), German physical chemist and biochemist. Born and educated in Berlin, he was the nephew of Paul *Ehrlich and of C. *Weigert. He was on the staff of Berlin University from 1908. From 1914 until the Nazis forced him to leave in 1935, he was professor of photochemistry in Leipzig University. He immigrated to Britain and from 1936 was director of the Physiochemical Department of the Cancer Research Institute at Mount Vernon Hospital, Northwood.

He elucidated the metabolism of the carcinogenic hydrocarbon 3, 4-benzpyrene by fluorescence spectroscopy. His books included Die chemischen Wirkungen des Lichts (1911) and Optische Methoden der Chemie (1927).

bibliography:

Berenblum and Halban, in: Nature, no. 159 (1947), 733.

[Samuel Aaron Miller]