Percy Lavon Julian

Percy Lavon Julian was an American research chemist and a pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants. He was the first to synthesize the natural product physostigmine and was a pioneer in the industrial large-scale chemical synthesis of the human hormones progesterone and testosterone from plant sterols such as stigmasterol and sitosterol. His work laid the foundation for the steroid drug industry's production of cortisone, other corticosteroids, and birth control pills.

11 April 1899

Born on the same birth day (11 April): AD 145 • Bernd Eichinger • Bill Irwin • David Manker Abshire • Dorothy Lewis Bernstein • Edwin Pope • George J. Maloof Sr. • John Milius • Lev Bulat • Macedonio Melloni • Nicky Pastorelli • Norman McLaren • Peter Riegert • Pierre Péladeau

Born in the same month (April 1899): Alfred Blalock • Bertil Ohlin • Cemal Tollu • Gustavs Celmiņš • Hillel Oppenheimer • Minoru Shirota • Oscar Rabin • Osman Achmatowicz • Randall Thompson • Robert Casadesus • Vladimir Nabokov