The son of G.I. Fischer, a botanist. Graduated from Moscow University, became Doctor of Medicine and lecturer in botany (1825) and then in zoology (1832), read his courses in various Academies and in the University in Moscow. He became director of the Museum in 1832 after G.I. Fischer left that position, but also left it in two years to become the Head of Department of Botany in the University. He also "inherited" from his father presidency of the Moscow Society of Naturalists in 1853.