He worked with
Johannes Wislicenus at the
University of Leipzig where he received his PhD in 1897. In 1902 he was working at the
deutsche Zoologische Station Neapel Stazione Zoologica Naples Italy together with
Anton Dohrn. During this time he published his discovery of a
vanadium containing compound in the blood cells of
ascidiaceans. He left Italy shortly before
World War I but rejoined the Institute in Naples in 1919. He became head of the medical chemistry department of the
University of Innsbruck in 1921. Because of his opposition to the Nazis he was forced to retire early in 1938. After
World War II he left Europe to live in the
United States. He joined
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and became a US citizen in 1952. == Family ==