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): Adélaïde Labille-Guiard • Anatoly Berezovoy • Attila József • Bob Harris (radio presenter) • David Jassy • David Manker Abshire • David Westheimer • Johanna Elberskirchen • John Krebs, Baron Krebs • Joss Stone • Luther Johnson (Guitar Junior) • Micheal Ray Richardson • Paul Douglas (actor) • Percy Lane Oliver • Stefanos Thomopoulos • Trevor Linden • Walter Krüger (athlete) • Zahid Maleque

Born in the same month (April 1899): Alan Arnett McLeod • Alfred Blalock • Alfred Mosher Butts • George O'Brien (actor) • Harold Osborn • Mary Petty • Minoru Shirota • Randall Thompson • Walter Lantz