Izrael Hieger

[2] Hieger was born in Siedlce, Russian Empire (present Republic of Poland), to parents Francis Ephroim and Helena Chaje Heiger and was the youngest of nine.

Heiger married Esther (née Bull), and although not a member,[3] financially assisted[4] a Trotskyist group in London run by C.L.R.

In pioneering work with W. V. Mayneord, the hospital's medical physicist, Hieger discovered the first known organic carcinogenic compound.

[9] Exploiting a method of fluorescence spectroscopy indicated similar spectra for carcinogenic tars and 1,2-benzanthracene and related polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

The discovery confirmed concerns over the correlation between occupational cancers and industries which involved exposure to tar, coal-gas and synthetic dyes[12] In 1939, Hieger and four colleagues, (Kennaway, Mayneord, J. W. Cook and C. L. Hewett) were awarded the first Anna Fuller Memorial Prize for cancer research.