Pregl, Fritz (1869–1930)

Austrian chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1923 for devising, during his research on bile acids, new techniques for microanalysis (the analysis of very small quantities). He scaled down his analytic equipment and designed a new balance that could weigh to an accuracy of 0.001 mg. This breakthrough in organic chemistry paved the way for modern biochemistry.

Pregl was born on 3 September 1869 in Laibach (now Ljubljana), Slovenia. He read medicine at Graz University, qualifying in 1893, and took up the post of assistant in physiological chemistry in 1899. In 1910 he became head of the chemistry department at Innsbruck, but he returned to Graz in 1913 when he was appointed professor of medical chemistry.