Percy Lavon Julian
Percy Lavon Julian (April 11, 1899-April 19, 1975) was an African American, research chemist of international renown, and a pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs. During his lifetime he received more than 130 chemical patents. Julian's work eventually led to "The Birth Control Pill." His obituary was carried by the New York Times, on April 21, 1975.
Julian was born in Montgomery, Alabama, the son of a railway clerk and the grandson of a slave. He graduated from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, in 1920 and received a M.S. degree from Harvard University in 1923 and a Ph.D. from the University of Vienna in 1931. Julian and his wife, Anne, had a daughter, Faith.
Fresh with his doctorate, in natural products chemistry, he went to Howard University for one year and then taught organic chemistry at his, alma mater, DePauw University, from 1932 to 1936. When he was denied a professorship at DePauw because of prejudice against blacks he unwittingly applied for a job at the Institute of Paper Chemistry in Wisconsin. However, the Wisconsin city of Appleton where the institute was located, had a law forbidding African Americans from staying overnight. W.J. O'Brien, a vice-president at the Glidden Paint Company in Chicago, Illinois took the gamble of offering the position of Director of Research, at the newly created Soy Products Division to Julian, who accepted.
Julian made his first major scientific contribution in 1935, when he synthesized physostigmine, the drug used in the treatment of glaucoma. During the next phase of his career, at Glidden, Julian isolated soy protein, on an industrial scale, which found use as a coating for paper and upon hydrolysis as a fire-extinguishing foam during WWII. "Aero-Foam", the soy protein based foam --the U.S. Navy's fire-fighting "bean soup"-- could smother oil and gasoline fires on board ships, especially aircraft carriers, before the flames could engulf and perhaps sink the ship. It saved the lives of countless thousands of American sailors.
He also worked on biomedical projects, synthesizing the steroids: progesterone (a female hormone), estrogen, testosterone (a male hormone), and cortisone from plant sterols such as stigmasterol, isolated from soybean oil by a "foam" technique he invented. His work made possible the production of these hormones on a large industrial scale, thereby reducing the cost of treating hormonal deficiencies, arthritis, and other disorders. In 1947, the NAACP awarded him the Spingarn medal, its highest honour.
Around 1950 Julian moved his family from Chicago to the suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, where the Julians were the first colored family. Although some residents welcomed them into the community, there was also widespread antipathy towards them. Their home was fire-bombed on Thanksgiving Day, 1950, before they moved in. After they moved to Oak Park, the house was attacked with dynamite on June 12,1951. The attacks galvanized the community and a community group was formed to support the Julians. In 1983, Hawthorne School in Oak Park was renamed Percey Julian Middle School.
In 1953, he founded his own research firm, Julian Laboratories, Inc. He sold the company in 1961, and in 1964, he founded Julian Associates and Julian Research Institute, which he managed for the rest of his life.
He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1973 in recognition of his scientific achievements.