Nikolai Kishner (1867-1935)

Russian chemist, born in Moscow; his surname is also transliterated as Kizhner or Kischner. He studied at Moscow University under Vladimir Markovnikov, with whom he obtained his doctorate in 1895. In 1901 he was appointed professor of organic chemistry at the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute (Siberia).

In Tomsk he discovered that hydrazones decompose in the presence of a base to give the corresponding hydrocarbon: he published it in 1911, and the reaction is now known as the Wolff-Kishner reduction. A year later he applied the thermal decomposition of pyrazolines to the synthesis of cyclopropanes (Kishner synthesis).

A serious illness forced him to leave Tomsk in 1913. He continued his research in Moscow, where he became a member of the Academy of Sciences, and died in 1935.