Dr. Percy Lavon Julian
Published on Dec 05, 2015
Bettina J.'s Diversity in STEM project.
MORE DECKS TO EXPLORE
PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Dr. Percy Lavon Julian
Montgomery, Alabama United States of America Born April 11, 1899 Died April 19, 1975
His efforts brought about the development of many medical drugs
that we consider standard today such as cortisone, steroids and birth control pills.
Education
- Despite his skin color being the determining factor upon acceptance into a large amount of universities within the United States, he graduated from the DePauw University where he graduated with honors. He attended DePauw to receive his high school diploma because there weren't any high schools for African-Americans.
Education (cont.d)
- He then became a chemistry instructor at Fisk University and left to attend Harvard in 1923. He received his masters degree from Harvard, but couldn’t get a doctorate. He traveled for a while before obtaining his Ph.D. from the University of Vienna in Austria in 1931.
In 1935, he earned many accolades with the discovery of a treatment for glaucoma
by synthesizing physostigmine from the calabar bean.
Discoveries
- He also invented Aero-Foam, a product made with soy beans and puts out oil and gas fires. This was widely used in World War II as well as other soy based inventions he developed.
Discoveries (con.t)
- - He continued his work in the biomedical community and discovered how to extract sterols from soybean oil and synthesize the hormones progesterone and testosterone as well as the synthesis of cortisone.
