Carl Djerassi (1923-2015): The Chemist Behind the Pill Who Also Wrote Plays

Introduction

Carl Djerassi was an Austrian-born American chemist whose career moved across continents and across disciplines. As a young researcher at Syntex in Mexico City he led the team that made norethindrone, the first orally active progestin, and thus helped create the oral contraceptive pill. At Stanford University he became a leader in mass spectrometry, optical rotatory dispersion and natural products chemistry. Later in life he became a novelist, playwright and patron of the arts. His legacy in one line: a scientist who changed how people plan their lives, and then wrote about the ethics of science.

Early Life and Family

Djerassi was born on 29 October 1923 in Vienna, Austria. His father, Samuel Djerassi, was a Bulgarian Jewish physician, and his mother, Alice, was an Austrian Jewish dentist. After his parents divorced he spent much of his childhood in Sofia, Bulgaria, with his father, and in Vienna with his mother. After the Anschluss in 1938, his world turned upside down. In 1939 he and his mother left Europe for the United States. He arrived with almost no money, but with a strong thirst for education.

Education and Mentors

Djerassi studied at Newark Junior College in New Jersey and then at Kenyon College in Ohio, where he graduated in 1942 with a degree in chemistry, with great distinction. He began working at the Ciba pharmaceutical company in Summit, New Jersey, in 1942, where he contributed to the development of an antihistamine, Pyribenzamine (tripelennamine), an early drug for allergies. He then went to the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he received his PhD in 1945, in steroid chemistry, at the age of 22. He credited his early mentors in industry and academia for introducing him to steroids, which became the focus of his life.

Career Timeline

Major Scientific Contributions

1. Norethindrone and the oral contraceptive

By adding an ethynyl group and removing a methyl group, his team created a steroid active by mouth. See our companion article for the Birch reduction route and the mechanism of action.

2. Chiroptical methods

With others, he developed optical rotatory dispersion and circular dichroism as tools for assigning structure and stereochemistry, including the octant rule for ketones.

3. Mass spectrometry

At Stanford his group studied how organic molecules fragment, and showed how to interpret these patterns to deduce structures of steroids, alkaloids and terpenes. This work helped establish mass spectrometry as a routine tool of organic chemistry.

4. Insect hormones and biorational pest control

He founded Zoecon to develop insect growth regulators that are more specific than traditional insecticides.

Awards, Honours and Nobel Prize

Djerassi never received a Nobel Prize, which many consider a notable omission. Among his honours were the US National Medal of Science (1973), the Wolf Prize in Chemistry (1978), the National Medal of Technology (1991) and the Priestley Medal of the American Chemical Society (1992). He was a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the National Inventors Hall of Fame and held many honorary degrees.

Personality, Struggles and Lesser-Known Facts

• Escape from Europe. He and his mother reached the United States in 1939, and he often spoke of the importance of refugee scholars to American science.
• Young PhD. He earned his doctorate at 22 and worked in industry before most of his peers had started.
• Personal tragedy. His daughter Pamela, an artist, died in 1978. In her memory he converted his ranch in the Santa Cruz Mountains into the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, which supports artists, writers and composers.
• Science-in-theatre. He coined the term "science-in-fiction" for his novels such as Cantor's Dilemma and plays such as Oxygen, which he wrote with Roald Hoffmann.
• Art collector. He gathered one of the world's largest private collections of the works of Paul Klee, which he later donated to museums.

Legacy and Influence on Modern Chemistry

Norethindrone and its relatives are among the most widely used drugs in the world, and hormonal contraception has influenced education, employment and family planning on every continent, including India. His chiroptical and mass-spectral methods are still taught in every spectroscopy course. The steroid industry, which now includes large Indian producers, descends from the Mexican plant-sapogenin technology in which he took part. Finally, his writing encouraged chemists to talk about ethics, credit and the human side of science.

Lessons for Students

• Work hard on foundations. His PhD at 22 followed years of focused study.
• Seek out collaborators and credit them, as he did with Miramontes and Rosenkranz.
• Be curious beyond chemistry: literature and art made him a better communicator.
• Accept that science has social consequences and think about them.
• Do not be discouraged by setbacks; he rebuilt his life more than once.

FAQ

Did Carl Djerassi invent the birth control pill?

He led the Syntex team that synthesised norethindrone, a key progestin used in the pill. The pill itself was the work of many people, including Gregory Pincus, John Rock and Frank Colton.

Where was Carl Djerassi born?

He was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1923 and became a naturalised American after emigrating in 1939.

Did he win a Nobel Prize?

No, although he received the National Medal of Science, the Wolf Prize and the Priestley Medal.

Why is he also known as a writer?

From the 1980s he wrote novels, poetry and plays about the lives of scientists and the ethics of research, calling the genre "science-in-fiction".

Published by ABC Chemistry — IIT-JAM | CSIR-NET | GATE Chemistry Coaching. Visit abcchemistry.com