Carl Djerassi
(http://www.djerassi.com)
Biographical Sketch
Carl Djerassi was born in Vienna, Austria, and received his education at Kenyon College (A.B.
summa cum laude, 1942) and the University of Wisconsin (Ph.D., 1945). After four years as
research chemist with CIBA Pharmaceutical Co. in Summit, New Jersey, he joined Syntex,
S.A., in Mexico City in 1949 as associate director of chemical research. In 1952 he accepted a
professorship of chemistry first at Wayne State University, and in 1959 at Stanford University
where he became Prof. Emeritus in 2002. Concurrently with his academic positions, he also
held various posts at Syntex during the period 1957-1972, including that of President of Syntex
Research (1968-1972). In 1968, he helped found Zoecon Corporation, a company dedicated to
developing novel approaches to insect control, serving as its chief executive officer until 1983.
He continued until 1988 as chairman of the board of Zoecon (now a subsidiary of Novartis, Ltd).
Djerassi has published over twelve hundred articles and seven monographs dealing with the
chemistry of natural products (steroids, alkaloids, antibiotics, lipids, and terpenoids), and with
applications of physical measurements (notably optical rotatory dispersion, magnetic circular
dichroism, and mass spectrometry) and computer artificial intelligence techniques to organic
chemical problems. In medicinal chemistry he was associated with the initial developments in
the fields of oral contraceptives (Norethindrone), antihistamines (Pyribenzamine) and topical
corticosteroids (Synalar).
For the first synthesis of a steroid contraceptive, Djerassi received the National Medal of
Science (1973), the first Wolf Prize in Chemistry (1978), and was inducted into the National
Inventors Hall of Fame (1978). He received the National Medal of Technology for his
contributions in the insect control field (1991). The American Chemical Society honored him
with its Award in Pure Chemistry (1958), Baekeland Medal (1959), Fritzsche Award (1960),
Award for Creative Invention (1973), Award in the Chemistry of Contemporary Technological
Problems (1983), Priestley Medal (1992), and the Willard Gibbs Medal (1997). Other
recognitions include the American Institute of Chemists Freedman Foundation Patent Award
(1970), its Chemical Pioneer Award (1973) as well as its Gold Medal (2004); the Society for
Chemical Industry’s Perkin Medal (1975), the Bard Award in Medicine and Science (1983), the
Roussel Prize (Paris) (1988), the Discoverer’s Award of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers
Association (1988), the Gustavus John Esselen Award for Chemistry in the Public Interest
(1989), the first Award for the Industrial Application of Science (1990) from the National
Academy of Sciences, the Nevada Medal (1992), the Thomson Gold Medal of the International
Mass Spectrometry Society (1994), the Prince Mahidol Award (Thailand) in Medicine (1995),
the Sovereign Fund Award (1996), the William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement, Sigma
Xi (1998), the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art (1999), the Othmer Gold Medal of
the Chemical Heritage Foundation (2000), the Author’s Prize of the German Chemical Society
(2001), the Erasmus Medal of the Academia Europaea (2003), the Sigillum magnum of the
University of Bologna (2003), the Great Merit Cross of Germany (2003), the Gold Medal of the
American Institute of Chemists (2004), the Serono Prize in Literature (Rome, 2005), and the
Lichtenberg Medal of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences. He is a member of the U.S. National
Academy of Sciences and of its Institute of Medicine, as well as a member of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Royal Swedish
Academy of Engineering Sciences, the German Academy of Natural Scientists (Leopoldina),
the Academia Europeae, and the Mexican, Bulgarian, and Brazilian Academies of Sciences.
The Royal Society of Chemistry (London) and the American Academy of Pharmaceutical
Sciences elected him to honorary membership in 1968. He is the recipient of twenty honorary
doctorates: National University of Mexico (1953); Kenyon College (1958); Federal University of
Rio de Janeiro (1969); Worcester Polytechnic Institute (1972); Wayne State University (1974);
Columbia University (1975); University of Uppsala (1977); Coe College (1978); University of
Geneva (1978); University of Ghent (1985); University of Manitoba (1985); Adelphi University
(1993); University of South Carolina (1995); University of Wisconsin (1995); Swiss Fed. Inst.
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Technol.-ETH (1995); University of Maryland-Baltimore County (1997), the Bulgarian Academy
of Sciences (1998); the University of Aberdeen (2000); Polytechnic University (NY) (2001); and
Cambridge University (2005).
Starting in 1986, he has published numerous poems and short stories in literary magazines as
well as a collection of short stories, The Futurist and Other Stories; five novels: Cantor's Dilemma,
The Bourbaki Gambit, Marx, Deceased, Menachem’s Seed, and NO; two autobiographies,
Steroids Made it Possible and The Pill, Pygmy Chimps, and Degas’ Horse; a poetry chapbook,
The Clock Runs Backward; a collection of essays, From the Lab into the World: A Pill for People,
Pets, and Bugs; and a memoir, This Man’s Pill: Reflections on the 50th birthday of the Pill.
Since 1997, he has focused on writing “science-in-theatre” plays. The first, AN IMMACULATE
MISCONCEPTION, premiered at the 1998 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and was subsequently
staged in London (New End Theatre in 1999 and Bridewell Theatre in 2002), San Francisco, New
York (Primary Stages), Vienna , Cologne, Munich, Berlin, Sundsvall, Stockholm, Sofia, Geneva,
Tokyo, Seoul, Los Angeles, Lisbon, Singapore and Detroit.The play has been translated into 11
languages and also published in book form in English, German, Spanish and Swedish. It was
broadcast by BBC World Service in 2000 as “play of the week” and by the West German (WDR)
and Swedish Radio in 2001 and NPR in the USA in 2004. His second play, OXYGEN, co-authored
with Roald Hoffmann, premiered in April 2001 at the San Diego Repertory Theatre, at the
Mainfranken Theater in Würzburg in Sept. 2001 through April 2002 (as well as in Munich,
Leverkusen and Halle), at the Riverside Studios in London in Nov. 2001, and subsequently in
Wellington, New Zealand, Korea (Pohang and Seoul), Tokyo, Toronto, Madison, WI,
Columbus,OH, Ottawa, Bologna, Sofia, Glasgow and Porto as well as many other German and
American venues. Both the BBC and the WDR broadcast the play in Dec. 2001 around the
centenary of the Nobel Prize—one of that play’s main themes. It has so far been translated into 10
languages. His third play, CALCULUS, dealing with the infamous Newton-Leibniz priority struggle,
has already appeared in book form in English, German, and Italian. It opened in San Francisco
(2003) and London (2004) with subsequent productions in 2005 in Dublin and Cambridge. A
musical version (composed by Werner Schulze) opened in the Zurich Opera Studiobühne in May
2005. His first “non-scientific” play, “EGO,” premiered at the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe and
under the title “THREE ON A COUCH” in London (2004). A German translation of “EGO” was
broadcast by the WDR in 2004, followed by its Austrian theatrical premiere in 2005 and a major
German tour (Landgraf) in early 2006. The London premiere of his fifth play (“PHALLACY”) with a
science vs. art theme occurred in 2005 with a German radio version to be broadcast in early 2006
by the WDR. His newest play, “TABOOS” will open in London in 2006. In addition, he has started
on a series of “pedagogic wordplays” to be used in schools in lieu of lectures. The first, “ICSI—
Sex in an Age of Mechanical Reproduction” has been published in English, German, Chinese and
Italian and performed in schools in the USA, Germany, Austria and Italy. The second, “NO,”
written with Pierre Laszlo was published in 2003 in English, German and French.
Under the auspices of the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, he founded an artists colony near
Woodside, California, which provides residencies and studio space for approximately seventy
artists per year. in the visual arts, literature, choreography, and music. Over 1500 artists have
passed through that program since its inception.
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