Wieland, Heinrich Otto

Heinrich Otto Wieland, (born June 4, 1877, Pforzheim, Ger.—died Aug. 5, 1957, Munich, W.Ger.), German chemist, winner of the 1927 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his determination of the molecular structure of bile acids.

Wieland obtained his doctorate at the University of Munich in 1901 and remained in that city to teach and conduct research. He became professor of chemistry at the University of Munich in 1925 and held that post until his retirement in 1950. Wieland made important contributions to structural organic chemistry with his findings (1911) that different forms of nitrogen in organic compounds can be detected and distinguished from one another. The following year he began his research on bile acids, which are produced by the liver. He found that the three acids he had isolated were steroids of similar structure that were related to cholesterol.

His later work led him to believe that oxidation in living tissues is a matter of removing hydrogen atoms (dehydrogenation) and not of adding oxygen. This theory proved of great importance to physiology, biochemistry, and medicine.