Heinrich Wieland (1877-1957), German organic chemist and Nobel Laureate. Wieland's father was a gold refiner, so Wieland received a good education. He studied and taught at various universities before settling in Munich in 1925. His early work centred on organic nitrogen compounds, plant alkaloids and pigments. Eventually, however, he concentrated on steroid chemistry. He produced cholanic acid both from three bile acids and, by a different path, from cholesterol. It followed that the bile acids and cholesterol have the same basic structure, which Wieland eventually identified. This work on steroids won him the 1927 Nobel Prize.