In this interview Carl Djerassi begins with his early years in Vienna and Bulgaria, including his schooling at the American College in Sofia. This is followed by his immigration to the United States, with special emphasis on his college experiences at Newark Junior College, Tarkio College, and Kenyon College. The central portion of the interview considers Djerassi as a student at the University of Wisconsin, followed by research work at Ciba, a faculty position at Wayne State University, and steroid research at Syntex in Mexico City. The interview continues with a move to Stanford University, and expands on Djerassi's dual positions in business and academe, concluding with personal views on writing scientific and non-scientific literature, interest in the arts, and a number of ways in which chemistry has changed during his career.
For additional information on Carl Djerassi, please visit his website at www.djerassi.com.
Ciba Pharmaceutical Company
1942 - 1943
Junior Research Chemist
Ciba Pharmaceutical Company
1945 - 1949
Research Chemist
Syntex S.A.
1949 - 1952
Associate Director of Chemical Research
Syntex S.A.
1957 - 1960
Vice President for Research
Wayne State University
1952 - 1954
Associate Professor of Chemistry
Wayne State University
1954 - 1957
Professor of Chemistry
Stanford University
1959
Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus
Syntex Corporation
1960 - 1972
Director
Syntex Corporation
1964 - 1969
Data Processing Applications Analyst, Center for Computer Sciences and Technology
Syntex Corporation
1969 - 1971
Consultant to Director, Center for Computer Sciences and Technology
Syntex Research
1960 - 1964
Vice President for Research
Syntex Research
1964 - 1968
Executive Vice President
Syntex Research
1968 - 1972
President
Syntex Research
1971 - 1972
Science and Technology Fellow
Syva Associates
1966 - 1978
Chairman, Board of Governors
Zoecon Corporation
1968 - 1988
Chairman of the Board
Zoecon Corporation
1968 - 1983
Chief Executive Officer
Cetus Corporation
1975
Director
Catalytica, Inc.
1975
Director
Djerassi Resident Artists Program
1972 - 1975
Staff Assistant for Computer Usage Information, Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology
Djerassi Resident Artists Program
1982
Founder
Djerassi Resident Artists Program
1975 - 1978
Chief, Computer Information Section, Information Technology Division, Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology
Djerassi Resident Artists Program
1978 - 1979
Manager, ADP Information Analysis, Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology
Teknowledge, Inc.
1975
Director
Title and Description Page
Childhood and Early Education 1
Parents and family situation in Vienna and Sofia. Realgymnasium in Vienna. The move to Bulgaria. Secondary school at The American College in Sofia. Curriculum. Early interest in medicine. Growing up as an only child. Skiing accident.
Immigration to the United States and Undergraduate Education 7
Arrival in New York. Enrollment at the Newark Junior College. Decision to become a chemist. Scholarship to Tarkio College. College activities and the church lecture circuit. Medical problems and rejection for military service.
Ciba and Graduate Education at Wisconsin 13
Ciba Pharmaceutical Company. Synthesis of Pyrabenzamine. The antihistamine revolution. First graduate courses at New York University and Brooklyn Polytechnic. Decision to go to graduate school. Decision to study steroids with Wilds. Marriage. WARF fellowship to Wisconsin. Friendship with Gilbert Stork. State of instrumentation in academic institutions. Estrogen synthesis. The dieneone-phenol rearrangement. Coining names for organic reactions. Reasons for not considering Harvard. Santonin.
Ciba, Syntex, and Wayne State 23
Work at Ciba on medicinal compounds. Decision to return to academe. Offer of research position at Syntex in Mexico City. Steroid research. Professorship at Wayne State University. Knee fusion. Divorce and remarriage.
Faculty Member at Stanford 28
Offer from University of Wisconsin. Move to Stanford University. Leave in Mexico. Reasons for leaving Mexico. Professional polygamy. Syntex-Stanford connections. Syva. Zoecon. Cetus. Teknowledge.
Personal Comments and Philosophy 37
American organic chemistry. Changing status of natural product chemistry. Costs of mixing business and academe. Writing poetry and fiction. Chemistry and the arts. Changes in chemistry. Reasons for prolific scientific writing. Students and postdoctoral fellows. Children. Views on interaction between academe and industry.
Notes 57
Index 59
Jeffrey L. Sturchio
Jeffrey L. Sturchio is president and CEO of the Global Health Council. Previously he served as vice president of corporate responsibility at Merck & Co., president of the Merck Company Foundation, and chairman of the U.S. Corporate Council on Africa. Sturchio is currently a visiting scholar at the Institute for Applied Economics and the Study of Business Enterprise at Johns Hopkins University and a member of the Global Agenda Council on the Healthy Next Generation of the World Economic Forum. He received an A.B. in history from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in the history and sociology of science from the University of Pennsylvania.
Arnold Thackray
Arnold Thackray founded the Chemical Heritage Foundation and served the organization as president for 25 years. He is currently CHF’s chancellor. Thackray received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in history of science from Cambridge University. He has held appointments at Cambridge, Oxford University, and Harvard University, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
In 1983 Thackray received the Dexter Award from the American Chemical Society for outstanding contributions to the history of chemistry. He served for more than a quarter century on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was the founding chairman of the Department of History and Sociology of Science and is currently the Joseph Priestley Professor Emeritus.