Alexander Gettler was born in Austria Hungary on August 4th 1968. He was a toxicologist with the office of Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York. Prior to his employment with OCME he worked as a clinical chemist at the Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan and taught Biochemistry at the New York University School of Medicine.
Gettler often had to create new tests to isolate poisons. He regularly experimented by poisoning raw liver and attempting to isolate ever-smaller amounts of poison from it. These tests often involved mashing or liquefying tissue, followed by such tests as crystal formation, melting and boiling point analysis, color reactions, and titration
In the 1920s, Gettler took the post of professor of chemistry at Washington Square College of New York University. At the same time he held a post at the New York University Graduate School.
