{{Short description|German-Italian chemist (1834–1915)}} {{Infobox scientist |name = Hugo Schiff |image = Hugo Schiff ca 1860.jpg |image_size = |caption = Hugo Schiff |birth_date = {{birth date|1834|4|26|df=y}} |birth_place = Frankfurt, Germany |residence = |nationality = |death_date = {{death date and age|1915|9|8|1834|4|26|df=y}} |death_place = Florence, Italy |field = |work_institution = University of Pisa<br>Museo di Storia Naturale di Firenze<br>University of Turin |alma_mater = University of Göttingen |doctoral_advisor = Friedrich Wöhler |doctoral_students = |known_for = Schiff base, <br/>Schiff test |prizes = |religion = |footnotes = }}'''Hugo (Ugo) Schiff''' (26 April 1834 – 8 September 1915) was an Italian naturalized chemist.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Hugo+Schiff|title=Hugo Schiff}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|doi = 10.3390/molecules181012264|doi-access = free|title = Schiff Bases: A Short Survey on an Evergreen Chemistry Tool|year = 2013|last1 = Qin|first1 = Wenling|last2 = Long|first2 = Sha|last3 = Panunzio|first3 = Mauro|last4 = Biondi|first4 = Stefano|journal = Molecules|volume = 18|issue = 10|pages = 12264–12289|pmid = 24108395|pmc = 6270622}}</ref> The son of a Jewish businessman and brother of the physiologist Moritz Schiff, Hugo Schiff was German by nationality.<ref>This article is largely a translation from the German Wikipedia article. These references are taken from there.</ref><ref>''Introduzione allo studio della chimica'' [Introduction to the study of chemistry], series of Schiff's lessons at the Museo di Scienze Naturali, Edizioni Loescher, Torino, '''1876'''.</ref><ref>''Einführung in das Studium der Chemie'' [Introduction to the study of chemistry], Prof. Hugo Schiff, Ed. Verlag von Theobald Grieben, Berlin, '''1876'''.</ref><ref>''Untersuchungen über Metallhaltige Anilinderivate und über die Bildung des Anilinroths'' [Investigations into aniline derivatives containing metals and into the formation of aniline red], Hugo Schiff, Ed. Verlag von J. Springer, Berlin, '''1864'''</ref><ref>Notes from Schiff's lessons compiled by his pupil Andrea Torricelli, Voll. I - II, '''1897'''.</ref> He discovered Schiff bases and other imines,<ref>See: * {{cite journal|last1=Schiff|first1=Hugo|title=Mittheilungen aus dem Universitäts-laboratorium in Pisa: 2. Eine neue Reihe organischer Basen|journal=Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie|date=1864|volume=131|pages=118–119|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1427225|trans-title=Communications from the university laboratory in Pisa: 2. A new series of organic bases|language=German|doi=10.1002/jlac.18641310113}} * {{cite journal|last1=Schiff|first1=Ugo|title=Sopra una nova serie di basi organiche|journal=Giornale di Scienze Naturali ed Economiche|date=1866|volume=2|pages=201–257|url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044106232283;view=1up;seq=207|trans-title=On a new series of organic bases|language=Italian}} * {{cite journal|last1=Schiff|first1=Hugo|title=Eine neue Reihe organischer Diamine|journal=Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie, Supplementband|date=1866|volume=3|pages=343–370|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3483657;view=1up;seq=353|trans-title=A new series of organic diamines|language=German}} * {{cite journal|last1=Schiff|first1=Hugo|title=Eine neue Reihe organischer Diamine. Zweite Abtheilung.|journal=Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie|date=1866|volume=140|pages=92–137|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1427259|trans-title=A new series of organic diamines. Second part.|language=German|doi=10.1002/jlac.18661400106}}</ref> and was responsible for research into aldehydes; leading to his development of the Schiff test. He also worked in the field of amino acids and the Biuret reagent.
Born in Frankfurt am Main, Schiff was a student of Friedrich Wöhler in Göttingen. He completed his dissertation (''Über einige Naphthyl- und Phenylderivate'') also supervised by Wöhler in 1857. In the same year, due to political turmoil, Schiff left Germany in 1857 for Switzerland and the University of Bern.<ref>{{cite journal | pmid = 18022986 | doi=10.1002/anie.200702965 | volume=47 | title=Hugo (Ugo) Schiff, Schiff bases, and a century of beta-lactam synthesis | year=2008 | journal=Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. | pages=1016–20 | last1 = Tidwell | first1 = TT| issue=6 | bibcode=2008ACIE...47.1016T }}</ref> He was a supporter of socialism and reportedly corresponded with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. He also was a cofounder of the socialist Italian newspaper ''L'Avanti'' in 1894.
Schiff moved to Italy in 1863, holding positions in Pisa and then the Florence Museum of Natural History. In 1870 he cofounded the journal ''Gazzetta Chimica Italiana'' together with Stanislao Cannizzaro. In 1877 he became a professor of general chemistry in Turin and returned to Florence in 1879 as a professor of general chemistry at what later would become the University of Florence, where he founded the Chemical Institute of the University of Florence. Schiff died in Florence.
At the University of Florence, the Hugo Schiff International Store House still exists today.
==References== {{Reflist}} *{{cite web | url = http://www2.chim.unifi.it/vp-145-ugo-schiff.html | title = Ugo Schiff bio on the University Of Florence official website}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Schiff, Hugo}} Category:1834 births Category:1915 deaths Category:19th-century German chemists Category:University of Bern alumni Category:Academic staff of the University of Florence Category:Scientists from Frankfurt Category:19th-century Italian chemists Category:German emigrants to Italy Category:Expatriates in Switzerland