Cremer, Erika (1900–1996)
Cremer, Erika (1900–1996)
German-born Austrian physicist and chemist.
Born May 20, 1900, in Munich, Germany; died Sept 21, 1996; University of Berlin, PhD in physical chemistry (1927).
Called the mother of chromatography, worked with eminent chemists Karl Bonhoeffer, George de Hevesy, Michael Polanyi, and Otto Hahn; obtained teaching position at University of Innsbruck in Austria due to labor shortages caused by World War II (1940); developed plans for gas chromatography machine to separate compounds from a gaseous mixture, but much of the information was lost in bombings and air raids during war; after war, continued developing gas chromatography (one important use of which is to measure gases in blood); published results and was appointed professor of chemistry at University of Innsbruck (1951).