Amazing People: Founder of Djerassi Resident Artist Program: Dr. Carl Djerassi
[I wrote this in 1999.]
Stanford chemistry Professor Dr. Carl Djerassi is often called the “father of the birth control pill.”
In 1951, the brilliant young organic chemist made history by synthesizing the first steroid effective as an oral contraceptive at Syntex’s Mexico City lab. This breakthrough led to the development of the birth control pill, which ranks near the top on the list of 20th century scientific achievements.
The glow of worldwide recognition might have enough for some, but not for the prolific Djerassi. He exchanged his white lab coat for highly successful careers in academia and as an industrial executive in Palo Alto.
He founded the Djerassi Resident Artist Program: by 1999 more than 1000 musicians, painters and writers have used its studios near rustic Woodside.
Most recently, Djerassi has plunged into the literary world as the engaging author of what he calls “science-in-fiction” novels and as a playwright whose latest work, “The Immaculate Misconception,” was performed at the Eureka Theater in San Francisco.
Djerassi was born in Vienna in 1923, the only child of Jewish parents, both physicians. The relationship with his parents was complex. In Djerassi’s 1992 scientific autobiography, “The Pill, Pygmy Chimps, and Degas’ Horse, he confesses that he did not know until he was 13 that his mother and father divorced when he six.
On the brink of World War II, in 1939, Djerassi and his mother fled Europe for the United States. First residing on the East Coast, the highly driven young man, almost penniless, went after and got a formal education in record time.
He was only 18 when he received a chemistry degree from Kenyon College in Ohio in 1942. Djerassi gained industrial experience working for a year at CIBA Pharmaceuticals in New Jersey, participating in the discovery of one of the first anti-histamines for allergy sufferers–an experience exposing him to the heady stuff of scientific research.
Djerassi earned his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin in 1945, where two young professors were researching the total synthesis of steroids, such as cortisone, then believed to be a wonder drug containing anti-arthritic properties. Djerassi’s interest in steroids was most likely further stimulated here.
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