Patent of the first orally active progestin, which led to the development of the oral contraceptive, elected to the USA Inventors Hall of Fame

Carl Djerassi (born October 29, 1923 in Vienna, Austria), is a chemist, novelist, and playwright best known for his contribution to the development of the first oral contraceptive pill (OCP). Events 437 - Valentinian III, Western Roman Emperor, marries Licinia Eudoxia, daughter of his cousin Theodosius II Year 1923 ( MCMXXIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Vienna ( in Wien; see also other names) is the Capital of Austria, and is also one of the nine States of Austria. Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich Chemistry (from Egyptian kēme (chem meaning "earth") is the Science concerned with the composition structure and properties A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or Drama. He participated in the invention in 1951, together with Mexican Luis E. Miramontes and Hungarian George Rosenkranz, of the progestin norethindrone—which, unlike progesterone, remained effective when taken orally and was far stronger than the naturally occurring hormone. Luis Ernesto Miramontes Cárdenas ( March 16 1925, in Tepic, Nayarit &ndash September 13 2004, in Mexico City George Rosenkranz (born as György Rosenkranz, August 20, 1916, in Budapest) is a Mexican Ph A progestin is a synthetic progestagen that has progestinic effects similar to Progesterone. Norethisterone (or norethindrone) (or 19-nor-17α-ethynyltestosterone is a molecule used in some Combined oral contraceptive pills and in some Progestogen only Progesterone is a C-21 Steroid Hormone involved in the Female Menstrual cycle, Pregnancy (supports Gestation Hormones (from Greek ὁρμή - "impetus" are chemicals released by cells that affect cells in other parts of the body His preparation was first administered as an oral contraceptive to animals by Gregory Pincus and Min Chueh Chang and to women by John Rock. Gregory Goodwin Pincus ( April 9, 1903 - August 22, 1967) American biologist and researcher was co-inventor of the Combined Dr Min Chueh Chang ( October 10, 1908 - June 5, 1991) often credited as M John Rock may refer to John Rock (American scientist John Rock (Abolitionist John Rock (ASUI Senator Djerassi remarked that he did not have birth control in mind when he began working with progesterone — "not in our wildest dreams… did we imagine (it)" — though he is now referred to by some as the father of the pill. He is also the author of the novel Cantor's Dilemma, in which he explores the ethics of modern scientific research through his protagonist, Dr. Ethics is a major branch of Philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning " Knowledge " or "knowing" is the effort to discover, and increase human understanding Cantor.

Life

Djerassi's mother was an Austrian Ashkenazi Jew and his father was a Bulgarian Sephardic Jew: this may explain why the name Djerassi looks more Spanish than Bulgarian. Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim ( Hebrew: אַשְׁכֲּנָזִים, ˌaʃkəˈnazim sing The Bulgarians (българи balgari) are a South Slavic people generally associated with the Republic of Bulgaria and the Bulgarian language Sephardi Jews ( Hebrew: ספרדי, Standard Səfardi Tiberian Səp̄arədî; plural (The Sephardic Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, by Ferdinand and Isabella. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. The Catholic Monarchs (los Reyes Católicos is the collective title used in history for Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon ) They met in medical school at the University of Vienna, married, and moved to Sofia, Bulgaria. The University of Vienna (Universität Wien is a Public university located in Vienna, Austria. Sofia (София ˈsɔfija is the Capital and largest city of the Republic of Bulgaria, with a population of 1395568 in the Capital Municipality The state of Bulgaria (България transliterated bg-Latn ''Balgaria'' The country preserves the traditions (in ethnic name language and alphabet of the First Bulgarian His mother returned to Vienna for two months for the birth of her only child. Djerassi lived in Bulgaria with his parents until he was five. He and his mother then moved to Vienna, which had better schools, in most respects. Until age fourteen, he attended the same Realgymnasium that Sigmund Freud had attended many years earlier, spending summers in Bulgaria with his father, who had divorced his mother. A gymnasium (pronounced with ɡ- in several languages is a type of school providing Secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar Sigmund Freud (ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt born Sigismund Shlomo Freud (May 6 1856 &ndash September 23 1939 was an Austrian Psychiatrist who founded (He didn't know about the divorce for several years. ) After the Anschluss, his father briefly remarried his mother to allow Carl to escape the Nazi regime and flee to Bulgaria in 1938, where he lived with his father for a year, attending the American College of Sofia and perfected his fluency in English, while his mother went to England to await a visa to emigrate to the United States. The ( German: "link-up" also known as the, was the 1938 Annexation of Austria into Greater Germany by the Nazi Nazism, which was a short name for National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus refers primarily to the Ideology and practices of the National Socialist German The American College of Sofia (Американски колеж в София Amerikanski kolezh v Sofiya; abbreviated as ACS) is one of the top and most prestigious English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland The United States of America —commonly referred to as the (Djerassi claims to be one of the few people to have twice forgotten the same language—Bulgarian. ) In 1939, the 16-year-old Djerassi arrived with his mother in the United States, nearly penniless (they had only $20 between them, which was swindled from them by a cab driver). Djerassi attended Newark Junior College (now defunct) in New Jersey, which completed his high-school education in accord with American expectations.

Djerassi's mother, Alice Friedmann, had difficulty practicing medicine in a new country. She helped another doctor in a group practice in upstate New York. Eventually, she retired.

Djerassi wrote a letter to Eleanor Roosevelt, asking where he should go to college. Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (ˈɛlɪnɔr ˈroʊzəvɛlt October 11 1884 &ndash November 7 1962 She sent him a reply with veiled advice, and he found a school and a scholarship. He went to Tarkio College (now defunct) in Missouri, then went to Kenyon College, which is better known for literature— it's the home of the Kenyon Review—than for chemistry. Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier Ohio, founded in 1824 by Bishop Philander Chase of the The Episcopal Church The Kenyon Review is a literary journal based in Gambier Ohio, USA, home of Kenyon College.

Djerassi's father, Samuel Djerassi, was a physician who specialized in treating syphilis. His practice, in Sofia, Bulgaria, was limited to a few wealthy patients, whose treatment lasted for years. Sofia (София ˈsɔfija is the Capital and largest city of the Republic of Bulgaria, with a population of 1395568 in the Capital Municipality Even during and after World War II, his practice was successful, although it could no longer have been confined to treating syphilitics with now-obsolete drugs. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including In 1949, he emigrated to the United States and eventually settled in San Francisco, near the home of his son. The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city

Djerassi graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Kenyon College (B.A. in organic chemistry, 1942). The Phi Beta Kappa Society is an academic Honor society with the mission of "fostering and recognizing excellence" in the Undergraduate Liberal arts He worked for Ciba the year before and four years after his graduate studies. Ciba is a Chemical company based in and near Basel, Switzerland. At Ciba, he got his first patent, for the antihistamine Pyribenzamine, which became a popular prescription drug. A patent is a set of Exclusive rights granted by a State to an inventor or his assignee for a fixed period of time in exchange for a disclosure of an A histamine antagonist is an agent which serves to inhibit the release or action of Histamine. Tripelennamine ( INN, also known as pyribenzamine) is a first generation Pyridine Antipruritic and Antihistamine in the Ethylenediamine He married his first wife, Virginia, an American, in 1943 before beginning graduate study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1945. "PhD" redirects here for other uses see PhD (disambiguation. He became an American citizen in 1945. (It is not clear whether the U. S. State Department asked him to surrender his Austrian passport—in wartime, it probably would—in any case, the Austrian government sent him a new one decades later, and also put his face on a postage stamp. )

In 1949, he was recruited to be the associate director of research at Syntex in Mexico City by then-technical director George Rosenkranz, and worked there from 1950-1951. Laboratorios Syntex SA was a pharmaceutical company formed in Mexico City in 1944 by Russell Marker to manufacture therapeutic steroids from the Mexican yam Mexico City (in Spanish: Ciudad de México, México DF, México or simply Méjico) is the Capital city of Mexico George Rosenkranz (born as György Rosenkranz, August 20, 1916, in Budapest) is a Mexican Ph At Syntex, he worked on a new synthesis of cortisone based on diosgenin, a steroid sapogenin derived from a Mexican wild yam; then his team synthesized norethindrone, a progestin-analogue that was effective when taken by mouth. Cortisone (ˈkɔrtɨsoʊn or /ˈkɔrtɨzoʊn/ (ˈkôrtəˌsōn or -zōn (17-hydroxy-11-dehydrocorticosterone is a Steroid Hormone. Diosgenin, a steroid sapogenin is the product of hydrolysis by acids strong bases or enzymes of Saponins, extracted from the Tubers of Dioscorea Norethisterone (or norethindrone) (or 19-nor-17α-ethynyltestosterone is a molecule used in some Combined oral contraceptive pills and in some Progestogen only A progestin is a synthetic progestagen that has progestinic effects similar to Progesterone. This became part of the first successful oral contraceptive, the combined oral contraceptive pill (COCP). COCPs became known colloquially as the birth-control pill, or simply, the Pill. (The term "the Pill" was first used by Aldous Huxley in his novel Brave New World. Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 &ndash 22 November 1963 was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Brave New World is a 1932 Novel by Aldous Huxley. Set in the London of AD 2540 (632 A From 1952 to 1959, Djerassi taught chemistry at Wayne State University. Wayne State University is located in Detroit, Michigan, in the city's Midtown Cultural Center. He returned to Syntex from 1957 to 1960, while on a leave of absence from Wayne State. ^[1][2]

Since 1959, Djerassi has been a professor of chemistry at Stanford University and the president of Syntex Laboratories in Mexico City, Mexico, and later in Palo Alto, California. Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly known as Stanford University or simply Stanford, is a private Research university located in Palo Alto (ˌpæloʊˈæltoʊ from Spanish: palo: "stick" and alto: "high" i He later started a company called Zoecon, which used modified insect growth hormones to control fleas and other insect pests. Flea is the Common name for any of the small wingless Insects of the order Siphonaptera (some authorities use the name Aphaniptera Zoecon flourished for a few decades and then was bought and swallowed by Occidental Petroleum: for a few years, Djerassi was on the board of directors of Occidental Petroleum. Zoecon's products were widely sold in the 1980's; they are still made and marketed by Wellmark International.

The Syntex connection made him a rich man. With his wealth, he bought a large tract of land in Woodside, California, started a cattle ranch, and also built up a large art collection. Woodside (pop 5352 is a small incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula. His next-door neighbor was the musician Neil Young, whose band could sometimes be heard rehearsing from a few miles away. Neil Percival Young OM (born November 12, 1945, Toronto Ontario) is a Canadian Singer-songwriter, Musician

With his second wife, Norma Lundholm, he had a son, Dale, who is a documentary filmmaker; and a daughter, Pamela, who grew up to become an artist. She was married to a doctor, who was doing a residency at Stanford. She suffered from chronic pain as well as depression, and took a fatal overdose of prescription drugs in July of 1978. After Pamela's suicide, Djerassi founded the Djerassi Resident Artists Program (DRAP) in her memory. Djerassi was married to biographer and Stanford professor emerita Diane Middlebrook until her death in December 2007. Diane Middlebrook ( April 16, 1939 &ndash December 15, 2007) was an American biographer, poet, and teacher They lived in San Francisco and London.

Djerassi had been a leading collector of the works of Paul Klee. His pieces are frequently exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, to which he has bequeathed his entire Klee collection. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art ( SFMOMA) is a major Modern art Museum and San Francisco Landmark. (One Klee show at SFMOMA, ca 1990, which was drawn exclusively from Djerassi's collection, filled several large galleries: most of the exhibition space on the museum's second floor. ) He stopped collecting when he founded DRAP, because he decided he'd rather patronize living artists than dead ones—or rather the art dealers and auctioneers who are the only beneficiaries of the immense appreciation in the value of works by dead artists. Dead visual artists get no royalties. Books, movies, and music earn royalties, which usually are shared with their creators, although publishers often get the lion's share. Art works can be copyrighted, but there is little money in them: Collectors pay millions of dollars for original works, but prints and photographs are not often published.

After his daughter's death, he and Middlebrook visited Florence and looked at the art works commissioned by the Medici. Florence ( Italian: Firenze Florentia and Fiorenza) is the Capital City of the Italian region of Tuscany Middlebrook asked him: "What would have happened if they had supported women artists as well as men?" It was too late to help Pamela, but many other artists need what she needed: a place to work, fellow artists to share their work with, a partner who was not consumed by a medical school residency. Mentors who are not always many miles away. He makes these things possible for new generations of artists. Perhaps it beats sitting in Christie's and waving a paddle at the auctioneer, and spending his considerable fortune to buy a few more "lots" at record prices. Christie's is a leading art business and a fine arts Auction house DRAP has works exhibited by artists who made them there; other works go out and are performed around the world. Artists have married there; a baby was born there; artists have done their best work there. He has found a way to patronize the living and let the dead rest in peace.

Djerassi closed down the cattle ranch; converted the barn and the houses to residential and work space for a number of artists of many kinds, brought in a prize-winning chef, and moved to a building he had renovated in San Francisco, where he occupies one floor as a turn-of-the-millennium salon. He also bought a home in London. Djerassi and Middlebrook alternate between hemispheres about once a year.

Social impact of scientific work

Djerassi anticipated the social impact of the pill. He perceived the pill as having a huge impact on the social processes of women and men, which to a significant extent is influenced through the sociobiology of sexual reproduction. Sociobiology is a neo-Darwinian and Socialism Synthesis of Scientific disciplines that attempts to explain Social behavior The Evolution of sexual reproduction is a major puzzle The first Fossilized evidence of sexually reproducing Organisms is from Eukaryotes of the Stenian He anticipated a far greater social impact on men than on women, in what he called as the feminization of men, implying the "Social-feminization" of laws and social values in favour of women in society as a whole. Law is a system of rules enforced through a set of Institutions used as an instrument to underpin civil obedience politics economics and society A personal and cultural value is a Relative ethic value, an assumption upon which implementation can be extrapolated

Awards and honors

He was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Nixon, for his work on the Pill. The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in Science and Engineering who have made important As he reported in his memoir, he was on the White House "enemies list" at the time. Nixon’s Enemies List is the informal name of what started as a list of President Richard Nixon ’s major political opponents compiled by Charles Colson He learned this from an article in the San Francisco Examiner, a few months later. The San Francisco Examiner is a US daily Newspaper. It has been published continuously in San Francisco, California, since

In 1975 he was awarded the Perkin Medal. The Perkin Medal is an award given annually by the American section of the Society of Chemical Industry to a scientist residing in America for an "innovation

In 1978, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. The National Inventors Hall of Fame is an organization that recognizes Inventors and invention everywhere promotes creativity and advances the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship In 1991, he was awarded the National Medal of Technology for "his broad technological contributions to solving environmental problems; and for his initiatives in developing novel, practical approaches to insect control products that are biodegradable and harmless. The National Medal of Technology and Innovation (formerly known as the National Medal of Technology) is an honor granted by the President of the United States to American "

In 1992 he was awarded the Priestley Medal. The Priestley Medal is the highest honor conferred by the American Chemical Society (ACS and is awarded for distinguished service in the field of Chemistry.

Austria has issued a postage stamp with Djerassi's picture on it. Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich A postage stamp is an adhesive paper evidence of pre-paying a fee for postal services The Austrian government also sent him a new Austrian passport. A passport is a document issued by a national government which certifies for the purpose of international travel the identity and nationality of its holder It is likely that Djerassi gave up his Austrian citizenship when he became a U.S. citizen (during World War II, but after he received the new passport, he definitely had dual citizenship. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Multiple citizenship, or multiple nationality is a status in which a person is concurrently regarded as a Citizen under the laws of more than one state. He was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honor for Art and Science, First Class in 1999.

Prof. Djerassi is a member of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists^[3] and is chairman of the Pharmanex Scientific Advisory Board. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is a nontechnical magazine that covers global security and public policy issues especially related to the dangers posed by nuclear Nu Skin Enterprises ( is an American Direct selling company that sells cosmetics nutritional supplements and technology services ^[4]

Books

Non-fiction

Djerassi is one of the few authors to publish multiple autobiographies, along with Joan Baez and Dory Previn. An autobiography, from the Greek αὐτός autos "self" βίος bios "life" and γράφειν graphein "to write" Joan Chandos Baez (born January 9, 1941 in Staten Island, New York) an American Folk singer and Songwriter known Dory Previn, née Dorothy Veronica Langan (born 22 October 1925 or 1929 is an American Lyricist, Singer-songwriter and Poet At least two appear in this list:

• Optical Rotatory Dispersion, McGraw-Hill & Company, 1960.
• The Politics of Contraception, W H Freeman & Company, 1981, ISBN 0-7167-1342-X
• Steroids Made it Possible (Profiles, Pathways, and Dreams), American Chemical Society, 1990, ISBN 0-8412-1773-4 (autobiography)
• The Pill, Pygmy Chimps, and Degas' Horse, Basic Books, 1992, ISBN 0-465-05758-6 (autobiography)
• From the Lab into The World: A Pill for People, Pets, and Bugs, American Chemical Society, 1994, ISBN 0-8412-2808-6
• Paul Klee: Masterpieces of the Djerassi Collection, (coeditor), Prestel Publishing, 2002, ISBN 3-7913-2779-8
• Dalla pillola alla penna, Di Renzo Editore, 2004, ISBN 8883230868
• This Man's Pill: Reflections on the 50th Birthday of the Pill , Oxford University Press, USA, 2004, ISBN 0-19-860695-8 (memoir)

Fiction

• Futurist and Other Stories, Macdonald, 1989, ISBN 0-356-17500-6
• The Clock Runs Backwards, Story Line Press, 1991, ISBN 0-934257-75-2
• Marx, Deceased, University of Georgia Press, 1996, ISBN 0-8203-1835-3

Science-in-fiction

Djerassi invented the genre called "Science-in-Fiction" to portray the lives of real scientists, with all their accomplishments, conflicts, and aspirations. The American Chemical Society ( ACS) is a Learned society ( Professional association) based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry It is not "Science fiction," set in the far future: it is about real people, living in our world now.

• Cantor's Dilemma, Penguin, 1989, ISBN 0-14-014359-9
• The Bourbaki Gambit, Penguin, 1994, ISBN 0-14-025485-4
• Menachem's Seed, Penguin, 1996, ISBN 0-14-027794-3
• NO, Penguin, 1998, ISBN 0-14-029654-9

Drama

• An Immaculate Misconception: Sex in an Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Imperial College Press, 2000, ISBN 1-86094-248-2 (adapted from the novel, Menachem's Seed)
  • L. A. Theatre Works, Audio Theatre Collection CD, 2004, ISBN 1-58081-286-4
• Oxygen, Wiley-VCH, {with Roald Hoffmann, coauthor), 2001, ISBN 3-527-30413-4
• Newton's Darkness: Two Dramatic Views, (with David Pinner, coauthor), Imperial College Press, 2004, ISBN 1-86094-390-X
• Four Jews on Parnassus

Bibliography

• Marks, Lara V (2004). Roald Hoffmann (born July 18, 1937) is an American theoretical Chemist who won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Sexual Chemistry: A History Of The Contraceptive Pill. Diane Publishing Company. ISBN 0-300-08943-0.  
• Tone, Andrea (2001). Devices and Desires. New York: Hill and Wang, A Division of Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. ISBN 0-8090-3817-X.  

References

External links

• Personal website
• Carl Djerassi video at the Peoples Archive (Carl Djerassi, telling his life story)
• Extended biography
• Djerassi Resident Artists Program