Rudolf Buchheim

Rudolf Buchheim was a German pharmacologist born in Bautzen in 1820, widely regarded as a founder of modern pharmacology and sometimes called the father of pharmacology. He received his doctorate from the University of Leipzig in 1845 and in 1847 took a post at the Imperial University of Dorpat, where he turned part of his own home into the first pharmacological laboratory and later established the first pharmacological institute. In 1866 he moved to the University of Giessen, where he remained until his death in 1879. His work helped change pharmacology from an empirical study into an independent medical discipline, with a classification of drugs by their mode of action, tested by experiment. His student Oswald Schmiedeberg carried the tradition forward.