Carl Djerassi

Carl Djerassi was born in Vienna, Austria, but spent the first years of his infancy in Sofia, Bulgaria, the home of his father, Samuel Djerassi, a dermatologist and specialist in sexually transmitted diseases.[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11384755/Carl-Djerassi-father-of-the-Pill-obituary.html "Carl Djerassi, father of the Pill – obituary"], The Telegraph, February 2, 2015.Weintraub, Bob. [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y_30HHlitenXG4rNMEtViLW1YbOOXy6a_OND_nD_5z-0tAjAjB-EyGT9PS-m/edit "Pincus, Djerassi and Oral Contraceptives"], Chemistry in Israel, Bulletin of the Israel Chemical Society. August 2005, pp. 47–50. His mother was Alice Friedmann, a Viennese dentist and physician. Both parents were Jewish.

Following his parents' divorce, Djerassi and his mother moved to Vienna. Until the age of 14, he attended the same realgymnasium that Sigmund Freud had attended many years earlier;{{cite news|last1=Wood|first1=Gaby|title=Father of the pill|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2007/apr/15/healthandwellbeing.features1|access-date=February 4, 2015|work=The Guardian|date=April 14, 2007}} spending summers in Bulgaria with his father.

Austria refused him citizenship and after the Anschluss, his father briefly remarried his mother in 1938 to allow Carl and his mother to escape the Nazi regime and flee to Sofia, Bulgaria, where he lived with his father for a year. Bulgaria, although not immune to antisemitism, proved a safe haven, as the country managed to save its entire 48,000-strong Jewish population from deportation to Nazi concentration camps. During his time in Sofia, Djerassi attended the American College of Sofia where he became fluent in English.

In December 1939, Djerassi arrived with his mother in the United States, nearly penniless. Djerassi's mother worked in a group practice in upstate New York. In 1949, his father emigrated to the United States, practiced in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and eventually retired near his son in San Francisco, California.

Djerassi started his college career at Newark Junior College after moving to the United States with his mother when he was 16. He previously had attended the American College of Sofia, a high school in Sofia, Bulgaria, where he became fluent in English. Because of the name of his high school, he was misunderstood and enrolled into Newark Junior College before graduating high school. After a year at Newark Junior College, Djerassi wrote a letter to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt asking for help with a room and board and tuition scholarship to a four-year college. He received a response from the Institute of International Education with a full scholarship to Tarkio College where he briefly attended, and then studied chemistry at Kenyon College, where he graduated summa cum laude.{{cite web |title=A Conversation with Carl Djerassi |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVL8FKitRLM |website=Youtube.com | date=13 April 2012 |publisher=Annual Reviews |access-date=2022-03-27}}{{cite web|author=Center for Oral History| title= Carl Djerassi |url=https://oh.sciencehistory.org/oral-histories/djerassi-carl|website= Science History Institute }}{{cite book|first1= Jeffrey L. |last1=Sturchio|first2= Arnold |last2=Thackray |title=Carl Djerassi, Transcript of an Interview Conducted by Jeffrey L. Sturchio and Arnold Thackray at Stanford University on July 31, 1985 |date=July 31, 1985 |url=https://oh.sciencehistory.org/sites/default/files/djerassi_c_0017_suppl.pdf|place=Philadelphia, PA|publisher=Center for History of Chemistry }} After one year at CIBA, he moved to the University of Wisconsin–Madison where he earned his PhD in organic chemistry in 1945. His thesis work examined the transformation of the male sex hormone testosterone into the female sex hormone estradiol, through a sequence of chemical reactions.{{cite web|title=Carl Djerassi|url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/historical-profile/carl-djerassi|website=Science History Institute|access-date=February 21, 2018|date=June 2016}}

In 1942/43, Djerassi worked for CIBA in New Jersey, developing Pyribenzamine (tripelennamine), his first patent and one of the first commercial antihistamines.

In 1949 Djerassi became associate director of research at Syntex in Mexico City and remained there through 1951. He has said that one factor influencing him to choose Syntex was that they had a DU spectrophotometer.{{cite book|last1=Board on Physics and Astronomy, Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences|title=Instrumentation for a better tomorrow: proceedings of a symposium in honor of Arnold Beckman|date=2006|publisher=National Academies Press|location=Washington, D.C.|isbn=978-0-309-10116-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9wlYap6UfE8C&pg=PA14|access-date=May 28, 2015}} He worked on a new synthesis of cortisone based on diosgenin, a steroid sapogenin derived from a Mexican wild yam.{{cite journal|last1=Rosenkranz|first1=George|title=The Early Days of Syntex|journal=Chemical Heritage Magazine|date=2005|volume=23|issue=2|pages=8–13}} His team later synthesized norethisterone (norethindrone),{{Cite journal | last1 = Djerassi | first1 = C. | last2 = Miramontes | first2 = L. | last3 = Rosenkranz | first3 = G. | last4 = Sondheimer | first4 = F. | title = Steroids. LIV.1Synthesis of 19-Nov-17α-ethynyltestosterone and 19-Nor-17α-methyltestosterone2 | doi = 10.1021/ja01645a010 | journal = Journal of the American Chemical Society | volume = 76 | issue = 16 | pages = 4092–4094 | year = 1954 | bibcode = 1954JAChS..76.4092D }} the first highly active progestin analogue that was effective when taken by mouth. This became part of one of the first successful combined oral contraceptive pills, known colloquially as the birth-control pill, or simply, the Pill. From 1952 to 1959 he was professor of chemistry at Wayne State University in Detroit.

Djerassi participated in the invention in 1951, together with Mexican Luis E. Miramontes and Hungarian-Mexican George Rosenkranz, of the progestin norethisterone—which, unlike progesterone, remained effective when taken orally and was far stronger than the naturally occurring hormone. His preparation was first administered as an oral contraceptive to animals by Gregory Goodwin Pincus and Min Chueh Chang and to women by John Rock.{{cite news|title=Carl Djerassi obituary|last1=Hayman|first1=Suzie|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/feb/01/carl-djerassi|access-date=February 2, 2015|work=The Guardian|date=February 1, 2015}}

In 1957, he became vice president of research at Syntex in Mexico City while on leave of absence from Wayne State. In 1960 Djerassi became a professor of chemistry at Stanford University, a position he held until 2002 {{cite news| url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-01-31/carl-djerassi-chemist-behind-birth-control-pill-dies-at-91 | work=Bloomberg | first=Laurence | last=Arnold | title=Carl Djerassi, Chemist Behind Birth-Control Pill, Dies at 91 | date=January 31, 2015}} but only part-time as he never left industry. From 1968 until 1972 he also served as president of Syntex Research at Palo Alto.

The Syntex connection brought wealth to Djerassi. He bought a large tract of land in San Mateo County, California, and started a cattle ranch called SMIP. (Initially an acronym for "Syntex Made It Possible", other variants have been suggested since.) He also assembled a large art collection. His collection of works by Paul Klee was considered to be one of the most significant to be privately held.{{cite web|title=Djerassi Resident Artists Program|url=http://www.djerassi.org/programhistory.html|access-date=February 4, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150214174510/http://djerassi.org/programhistory.html|archive-date=February 14, 2015|url-status=dead}} He arranged for his Klee collections to be donated to the Albertina in Vienna and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, effective on his death.{{cite web|title=Albertina's Modern Holdings Deepened by Transfer of Batliner Collection|url=http://arttattler.com/archivemodernmasterworks.html|website=Art Tattler International|access-date=February 4, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150204193917/http://arttattler.com/archivemodernmasterworks.html|archive-date=February 4, 2015}}

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Djerassi continued to do significant scientific work, as a professor in the department of chemistry at Stanford University, and as an entrepreneur. He pioneered novel physical research techniques for mass spectrometry and optical rotatory dispersion and applied them to the areas of organic chemistry and the life sciences. Focusing on the steroid hormones and alkaloids, he elucidated the structure of steroids, an area in which he published over 1,200 papers. His scientific interests were wide-ranging, and his technological achievements include work in instrumentation, pharmaceuticals, insect control, the application of artificial intelligence in biomedical research, and the biology and chemistry of marine organisms.

In 1968, he started a new company, Zoecon, which focused on environmentally soft methods of pest control, using modified insect growth hormones to stop insects from metamorphosing from the larval stage to the pupal and adult stages.{{cite book|last1=Wells|first1=Ken|title=Herd on the street: animal stories from the Wall Street journal|date=2003|publisher=Free Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-7432-5420-5|pages=233–244|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PHQywCUie1AC&pg=PA234}} Zoecon was eventually acquired by Occidental Petroleum, which later sold it to Sandoz, now Novartis. Part of Zoecon survives in Dallas, Texas, making products to control fleas and other pests.

In 1965 at Stanford University, nobel laureate Joshua Lederberg, computer scientist Edward Feigenbaum, and Djerassi devised the computer program DENDRAL (dendritic algorithm) for the elucidation of the molecular structure of unknown organic compounds taken from known groups of such compounds, such as the alkaloids and the steroids.{{cite web|date=July 2011|title=The Joshua Lederberg Papers: Computers, Artificial Intelligence, and Expert Systems in Biomedical Research|work=Profiles in Science|location=Bethesda, Md.|publisher=U.S. National Library of Medicine|url=http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/Narrative/BB/p-nid/31|access-date=August 2, 2011}} This was a prototype for expert systems and one of the first uses of artificial intelligence in biomedical research.

Djerassi was a member of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists{{cite web|title=Board of Sponsors|work=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists|url=http://thebulletin.org/content/about-us/board-of-sponsors|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090218145005/http://thebulletin.org/content/about-us/board-of-sponsors|archive-date=February 18, 2009}} and was chairman of the Pharmanex Scientific Advisory Board.{{cite web|title=Carl Djerassi, Ph.D.| work=Pharmanews|publisher=Phamanex|url=http://www.pharmanex.com/corp/pharmanews/sab/carl_djerassi.shtml|access-date=December 17, 2006}}

Djerassi published widely as a novelist, playwright and scientist.{{Cite book| last=Gehrke|first=Ingrid |title=Der intellektuelle Polygamist: Carl Djerassi's Grenzgänge in Autobiographie, Roman und Drama. |location=Berlin et al. |publisher=Lit Verlag |year=2008 | isbn=978-3-8258-1444-1}}{{Cite book | editor-last=Grünzweig| editor-first=Walter |title=The SciArtist: Carl Djerassi's Science-in-Literature in Transatlantic and Interdisciplinary Contexts |location=Berlin et al. |publisher=Lit Verlag |year=2012 |isbn=978-3-643-90231-3}}{{Cite book |last=Marks |first=Lara V. |title=Sexual Chemistry: A History Of The Contraceptive Pill |publisher=Diane Publishing Company |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-300-08943-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/sexualchemistryh00mark }}{{Cite book|last=Tone|first=Andrea|title=Devices and Desires|location=New York|publisher=Hill and Wang, A Division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux|year=2001|isbn=978-0-8090-3817-6|url=https://archive.org/details/devicesdesireshi00tone}} In 1985, Djerassi said "I feel like I'd like to lead one more life. I'd like to leave a cultural imprint on society rather than just a technological benefit."{{cite web|last1=Reinhardt|first1=Carsten|title=CHF Remembers Carl Djerassi|url=http://blog.distillations.org/post/109905137147/chf-remembers-carl-djerassi|website=Chemical Heritage Foundation|access-date=February 2, 2015|archive-date=March 21, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150321044501/http://blog.distillations.org/post/109905137147/chf-remembers-carl-djerassi|url-status=dead}}

He went on to write several novels in the "science-in-fiction" genre, including Cantor's Dilemma, in which he explored the ethics of modern scientific research through his protagonist, Dr. Cantor. He also wrote four autobiographies, the most recent of which, In Retrospect appeared in 2014. He wrote a number of plays which have been performed and extensively translated. His book Chemistry in Theatre: Insufficiency, Phallacy or Both discusses the potential pedagogic value of using dialogic style and the plot structure of plays with special focus on chemistry.{{cite journal|last1=Sterken|first1=Christiaan|title=Chemistry in Theatre. Insufficiency, Phallacy or Both. Carl Djerassi (Book Review)|journal=The Journal of Astronomical Data|date=2012|volume=18|issue=6|url=http://www.vub.ac.be/STER/JAD/JAD18/jad18_6/jad18_6.pdf|access-date=February 2, 2015}}

Djerassi wrote five novels, four of which he described as "science-in-fiction",{{cite web|url=http://www.djerassi.com/science.html|title=Science in Fiction|last=Djerassi|first=Carl|access-date=December 19, 2008}}{{cite news|last=Solon|first=Olivia|title=Q&A: Co-Inventor of 'The Pill' Talks Art, Science and Chemistry|url=https://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/09/djerassi-qa/|newspaper=Wired UK|date=September 6, 2012}} fiction that portrays the lives of real scientists, with all their accomplishments, conflicts, and aspirations. The genre is also referred to as Lab lit.{{cite news | author = Bouton, Katherine |date=December 3, 2012| title = In Lab Lit, Fiction Meets Science of the Real World |newspaper = The New York Times | pages = D2 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/04/science/in-lab-lit-fiction-meets-science-of-the-real-world.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0}}

In his first two novels, Cantor's Dilemma and Bourbaki Gambit, he shows how scientists work and think. In Cantor's Dilemma, there is the suspicion of scientific fraud; in Bourbaki Gambit the question of personal achievement stands in the center.{{cite web|title=The Bourbaki Gambit|url=http://www.ugapress.org/index.php/books/bourbaki_gambit|access-date=February 2, 2015|agency=University of Georgia Press|archive-date=February 2, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150202174044/http://www.ugapress.org/index.php/books/bourbaki_gambit|url-status=dead}} In the third, Menachem's Seed, ICSI and the Pugwash organization are the main themes.{{cite journal|last1=Smith|first1=Phililp|title=Pugwash, thinly disguised|journal=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists|date=1997|volume=53|issue=6|pages=57–58|doi=10.1080/00963402.1997.11456791|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vgwAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA57|access-date=February 2, 2015|url-access=subscription}} In the last, NO, he shows how young scientists develop an idea as far as founding a company to market a product{{cite news|last1=Djerassi|first1=Carl|title=Carl Djerassi: 'I, a feminist father of the Pill, foresee no male Pill'|url=http://www.the-principal.com/2013/11/carl-djerassi-i-a-feminist-father-of-the-pill-foresee-no-male-pill/|access-date=February 2, 2015|work=Wired Science|date=November 4, 2013|archive-date=February 2, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150202200650/http://www.the-principal.com/2013/11/carl-djerassi-i-a-feminist-father-of-the-pill-foresee-no-male-pill/|url-status=dead}} – something Djerassi himself did in the field of insecticides.

The topic of the fifth novel, Marx Deceased, is the role of a writer's earlier bestsellers for the assessment of a new work – in contrast to the assessment of an anonymous work or one of a formerly unknown author.{{cite journal|title='Marx, Deceased' by Carl Djerassi (Review)|journal=Kirkus Reviews|date=August 2, 1996|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/carl-djerassi-4/marx-deceased-2/|access-date=February 2, 2015}} He also plays with this topic in Bourbaki Gambit.

After his success with prose literature in the Science-in-Fiction genre, Djerassi started to write plays.{{cite news|last1=Guthrie|first1=Julian|title=Act 2 for pill's inventor: Carl Djerassi writing plays at 91|url=http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Act-2-for-pill-s-inventor-Carl-Djerassi-5824940.php|access-date=February 2, 2015|work=SFGate|date=October 15, 2014}} Theatre, even more so than prose, seemed to fulfill his desire to work in a more “dialogical” environment than the monological natural sciences had allowed him to do.{{cite news|last1=Trueman|first1=Matt|title=New play by Carl Djerassi, inventor of the pill, explores philosophers' sex lives|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/apr/29/carl-djerassi-inventor-pill-sex-lives-philosophers-foreplay|access-date=February 2, 2015|work=The Guardian|date=April 29, 2014}} According to British director Andy Jordan, who has produced all of his plays in England, Djerassi's dramatic works are "not wholly or straightforwardly naturalistic or realistic […but] avowedly text-driven, where ideas, themes, words and language were majorly important, a fact I had always to be conscious of as the director.2Andi Jordan, "Carl Djerassi's Science-in-Theatre Plays: The Theatrical Realization," in: Walter Grünzweig, ed., The SciArtist: Carl Djerassi's Science-in-Literature in Transatlantic and Interdisciplinary Contexts, Berlin et al.: Lit Verlag, 2012, p. 119.

Djerassi's first play, An Immaculate Misconception (1998), dealing with the in vitro fertilization procedure ICSI,{{cite news|last1=Levy|first1=Dawn|title=Djerassi's science-in-fiction explores sex and reproduction|url=http://news.stanford.edu/pr/00/0002231djerassi.html|access-date=February 2, 2015|work=Stanford News Service|date=February 23, 2000|archive-date=April 8, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150408200821/http://news.stanford.edu/pr/00/0002231djerassi.html|url-status=dead}} was followed by two plays about priority struggles in the history of science, Oxygen (co-authored with Roald Hoffmann, 1999){{cite news|last1=Zare|first1=Richard N.|title=Play co-authored by Carl Djerassi offers caricature of Nobel Prize selection process|url=http://news.stanford.edu/news/2001/october3/nobel-oxygen103.html|access-date=February 2, 2015|work=Stanford Report|date=October 3, 2001}} and Calculus (2002),{{cite news|last1=Campos|first1=Liliane|title=Examining Newton's darker side|url=http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2004/aug/09/examining-newtons-darker-side|access-date=February 2, 2015|work=Physics World|date=August 9, 2004}} and a drama at the intersection of chemistry and art history, Phallacy (2004).{{cite news|last1=Rohn|first1=Jennifer|title=Science and Art go head-to-head|url=http://www.lablit.com/article/30|access-date=February 2, 2015|work=LabLit.com|date=April 23, 2005}} Ego (2003, also produced under the title Three on a Couch),Walter Grünzweig, ed., The SciArtist: Carl Djerassi's Science-in-Literature in Transatlantic and Interdisciplinary Contexts, Berlin et al.: Lit Verlag, 2012. together with the docudrama Four Jews on Parnassus (2006, publ. 2008){{cite news|title=Featured Research – Play Highlights Literary Career of Renowned Chemist, Carl Djerassi|url=http://shc.stanford.edu/news/research/featured-research-play-highlights-literary-career-renowned-chemist-carl-djerassi|access-date=February 2, 2015|work=Stanford Humanities Center|date=February 1, 2010|archive-date=February 3, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150203135429/http://shc.stanford.edu/news/research/featured-research-play-highlights-literary-career-renowned-chemist-carl-djerassi|url-status=dead}} and Foreplay (2010), are the only three dramatic pieces that do not deal with science-in-literature but rather carry the notion of intellectual competitiveness into literature, philosophy and the humanities. Taboos (2006), a complex play between reproductive, gender and political issues, returns to Djerassi's central concerns as a scientist;{{cite news|last1=Genzlinger|first1=Neil|title=Who's Your Daddy? Your Uncle|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/theater/reviews/24tabo.html|access-date=February 2, 2015|work=The New York Times|date=September 24, 2008}} his 2012 play Insufficiency is a bitter satire of both the scientific community and academic environments. ICSI, sex in the age of mechanical reproduction (2002), was taken to theaters and also to classrooms as a pedagogic wordplay, in many countries, including Spain and Argentina (by collaboration with Dr Àgata Baizán and Alberto Diaz) where it opened the VIII Latinoamerican and Caribbean Biotechnology meeting REDBIO-Argentina 2013 and featured in universities and theaters.{{Cite web|last=Djerassi|first=Carl|date=April 10, 2021|title=Performance Schedule of ICSI (a pedagogic wordplay for two voices)|url=http://www.djerassi.com/classroom/index.html|url-status=live|website=Djerassi|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020604190159/http://www.djerassi.com:80/classroom/index.html |archive-date=2002-06-04 }}

As in his novels, Djerassi's plays incorporate the life and achievements of (sometimes famous) scientists as well as new scientific technologies. The science in his plays is always scientifically plausible although the dramatic personae and locations are fictitious.{{cite news|last1=Valsler|first1=Ben|title=Carl Djerassi – chemistry and theatre|url=http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2014/09/carl-djerassi-chemistry-art-fiction-theatre|access-date=February 2, 2015|work=Chemistry World|date=September 30, 2014}} By placing scientists and research into dramatic worlds, he raises critical questions about the sciences as cultural systems and looks into internal conflicts and contradictions in science and between scientists.{{cite book |editor-last1=Priest|editor-first1=Susanna Hornig|title=Encyclopedia of science and technology communication|date=2010|publisher=SAGE|location=Thousand Oaks, Calif.|isbn=978-1-4129-5920-9|page=742|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l1F2AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA742|access-date=February 2, 2015|chapter=Science Theater}} The constant competition between them, the need for priority in new scientific discoveries even if the required speed necessitates risky and immoral means, as well as the problematic consequences of new discoveries are important topics of the plays.

Connected with many of these questions is the role of women in the sciences (including researchers’ wives and female friends). Djerassi's plays recognize the special contributions women make as scientists and to science, both directly and indirectly. His female characters are usually depicted as strong and independent, proving a strong impact of feminist thinking on his work.

Djerassi's plays have found their way into theaters around the globe and have been translated into many European and Asian languages. Djerassi repeatedly revised his plays and some of them have different versions and multiple endings{{cite news|title=Good Chemistry Yields 'Oxygen'|url=http://www.djerassi.com/oxygen3/|access-date=February 2, 2015|work=Science & Technology|date=April 30, 2001}} (especially An Immaculate Misconception: the nationalities of the main characters vary, also the endings). Where possible, Djerassi also cooperated with directors in the production of dramatic performances.{{cite news|last1=Calamia|first1=Donald V.|title=Curtain Calls|url=http://www.pridesource.com/article.html?article=15585|access-date=February 2, 2015|work=Between the Lines News|date=September 1, 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150202185433/http://www.pridesource.com/article.html?article=15585|archive-date=February 2, 2015|url-status=dead}} All of his plays have been published in book form, many of them in a number of languages. Some of them can be downloaded from his website.

Djerassi wrote numerous poems that were published in journals or anthologies. Some of the poems reflected his life as a chemist (e.g. Why are chemists not poets or The clock runs backwards), others his personal life (e.g. A Diary of Pique).{{cite news|last1=McNamee|first1=Dardis|title=Carl Djerassi: The Poet of Progressive Science|url=http://www.viennareview.net/commentary/kaffeehaus/carl-djerassi-the-poet-of-progressive-science|access-date=February 2, 2015|work=The Vienna Review|date=June 19, 2012|archive-date=February 2, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150202184608/http://www.viennareview.net/commentary/kaffeehaus/carl-djerassi-the-poet-of-progressive-science|url-status=dead}}The Clock Runs Backwards, Brownsville, OR: Story Line Press, 1991. {{ISBN|0-934257-75-2}}A Diary of Pique/ Tagebuch des Grolls, Haymon Verlag, Innsbruck, 2012. {{ISBN|978-3-85218-719-8}}

{{Library resources box|by=yes|viaf= 108518014}}

• Optical Rotatory Dispersion, McGraw-Hill & Company, 1960.
• The Politics of ContraceptionThe Politics of Contraception, New York & London: W. W. Norton, 1979. {{ISBN|0-393-01264-6}}
• Steroids Made it PossibleSteroids Made it Possible, Washington, DC: American Chemical Society, 1990. {{ISBN|0-8412-1773-4}}
• The Pill, Pygmy Chimps, and Degas' HorseThe Pill, Pygmy Chimps, and Degas' Horse, Basic Books, 1992. {{ISBN|0-465-05758-6}} (autobiography)
• From the Lab into The World: A Pill for People, Pets, and BugsFrom the Lab into The World: A Pill for People, Pets, and Bugs, American Chemical Society, 1994. {{ISBN|0-8412-2808-6}}
• Paul Klee: Masterpieces of the Djerassi CollectionPaul Klee: Masterpieces of the Djerassi Collection, (coeditor), Prestel Publishing, 2002. {{ISBN|3-7913-2779-8}}
• Dalla pillola alla pennaDalla pillola alla penna, Di Renzo Editore, 2004. {{ISBN|88-8323-086-8}}
• This Man's Pill: Reflections on the 50th Birthday of the PillThis Man's Pill: Reflections on the 50th Birthday of the Pill, Oxford University Press, USA, 2004. {{ISBN|0-19-860695-8}} (autobiography)
• In Retrospect : From the Pill to the PenIn Retrospect : From the Pill to the Pen, Imperial College Press, USA, 2014. {{ISBN|978-1-78326-532-9}} (autobiography)

• Cantor's Dilemma, 1989Cantor's Dilemma, Penguin, 1989. {{ISBN|0-14-014359-9}}{{cite web|title=Review of Cantor's Dilemma by Carl Djerassi|date=September 1, 1989|website=Kirkus Reviews|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/carl-djerassi-2/cantors-dilemma/}}{{cite web|title=Review of Cantor's Review by Carl Djerassi|date=October 1, 1989|website=Publishers Weekly|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-385-26183-8}}
• The Bourbaki Gambit, 1994The Bourbaki Gambit, Penguin, 1994. {{ISBN|0-14-025485-4}}{{cite web|title=Review of The Bourbaki Gambit by Carl Djerassi|website=Kirkus Reviews|date=October 1, 1994|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/carl-djerassi-3/the-bourbaki-gambit-2/}}{{cite web|title=Review of The Bourbaki Gambit by Carl Djerassi|website=Publishers Weekly|date=August 29, 1994|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-8203-1652-9}}
• The Futurist and Other StoriesThe Futurist and Other Stories, London & Sydney: Macdonald, 1989. {{ISBN|0-356-17500-6}}
• How I Beat Coca-Cola and Other Tales of One-UpmanshipHow I Beat Coca-Cola and Other Tales of One-Upmanship, Madison: Terrace Books/U Wisconsin P, 2013. {{ISBN|978-0-299-29504-2}}
• Marx, Deceased. A Novel, 1996Marx, Deceased. A Novel, Athens & London: U of Georgia P, 1996. {{ISBN|0-8203-1835-3}}
• Menachem's Seed. A Novel, 1997Menachem's Seed. A Novel, Athens & London: U Georgia P, 1997. {{ISBN|0-8203-1925-2}}
• NO. A Novel, 1998NO. A Novel, Athens & London: The U of Georgia P, 1998. {{ISBN|0-8203-2032-3}}

• Chemistry in Theatre: Insufficiency, Phallacy or BothChemistry in Theatre: Insufficiency, Phallacy or Both, Imperial College Press, 2012. {{ISBN|978-1-84816-937-1}}
• Foreplay: Hannah Arendt, the Two Adornos, and Walter BenjaminForeplay: Hannah Arendt, the Two Adornos, and Walter Benjamin, Madison: U Wisconsin P, 2011. {{ISBN|978-0-299-28334-6}}
• Four Jews on Parnassus
• An Immaculate Misconception: Sex in an Age of Mechanical ReproductionAn Immaculate Misconception: Sex in an Age of Mechanical Reproduction, London: Imperial College Press, 2000. {{ISBN|1-86094-248-2}} (adapted from the novel Menachem's Seed)
• L.A. Theatre WorksL.A. Theatre Works, Audio Theatre Collection CD, 2004. {{ISBN|1-58081-286-4}}
• Oxygen (with Roald Hoffmann, coauthor)Oxygen (with Roald Hoffmann, coauthor), Weinheim et al.: WILEY-VCH, 2001. {{ISBN|3-527-30413-4}}
• Newton's Darkness: Two Dramatic ViewsNewton's Darkness: Two Dramatic Views, (with David Pinner, coauthor), London: Imperial College Press, 2004. {{ISBN|1-86094-390-X}}
• Sex in an Age of Technological Reproduction: ICSI and TABOOSSex in an Age of Technological Reproduction: ICSI and TABOOS, Madison: U Wisconsin P, 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-299-22790-6}} translated to Spanish and brought to scene by Dr. Àgata Baizán{{Cite book|last=Djerassi|first=Carl|url=https://www.fondodeculturaeconomica.com/Ficha/9786071620934/F|title=Ciencia en Teatro – Cuatro Obras|publisher=Fondo de Cultura Económico|year=2014|isbn=978-607-16-1969-3|location=Mexico|pages=191–355|translator-last=Baizán|translator-first=Àgata|translator-last2=Hernández|translator-first2=Jorge F.}}

File:miramontes patent.jpg

Djerassi won numerous awards during his career including:

• Ernest Guenther Award in Chemistry and Natural Products by the American Chemical Society (1960){{Cite web|url=https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/funding-and-awards/awards/national/bytopic/ernest-guenther-award-in-the-chemistry-of-natural-products.html|title=Ernest Guenther Award in the Chemistry of Natural Products|website=American Chemical Society|language=en|access-date=April 3, 2020}}
• Scheele Award (1972)
• National Medal of Science (President of the United States of America, 1973) for his work on the contraceptive pill[https://www.nsf.gov/od/nms/recip_details.cfm?recip_id=106 National Science Foundation – The President's National Medal of Science] (The award was somewhat ironic in that his name at the time was on the infamous "Nixon's enemies list", which was compiled by Charles Colson and Richard Nixon. He learned this from an article in the San Francisco Examiner, several months later.)
• Perkin Medal (1975){{cite web|title=SCI Perkin Medal|url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/sci-perkin-medal|website=Science History Institute|access-date=March 24, 2018|date=May 31, 2016}}
• Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame (1978)[http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/44.html National Inventors Hall of Fame] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100709223237/http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/44.html |date=July 9, 2010 }}
• First recipient of the Wolf Prize, 1978
• National Medal of Technology (President of the United States of America, 1991) for "his broad technological contributions to solving environmental problems; and for his initiatives in developing novel, practical approaches to insect control products that are biodegradable and harmless"
• Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement (1980){{cite web|title= Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=American Academy of Achievement|url=https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#science-exploration}}
• Priestley Medal (American Chemical Society, 1992)
• Willard Gibbs Award (Chicago Section of the American Chemical Society., 1997)
• Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class (1999){{cite web | url = http://www.parlament.gv.at/PAKT/VHG/XXIV/AB/AB_10542/imfname_251156.pdf | title = Reply to a parliamentary question | language = de | page=1219 | access-date = November 28, 2012 }}
• Othmer Gold Medal (2000){{cite journal|last1=Reisch|first1=Marc|title=Carl Djerassi Receives Othmer Gold Medal|journal=Chemical & Engineering News|date=June 5, 2000|volume=78|issue=23|pages=79|doi=10.1021/cen-v078n023.p079|doi-access=free}}{{cite web|title=Othmer Gold Medal |url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/othmer-gold-medal |publisher=Science History Institute |access-date=June 12, 2014 }}
• Prize of the German Chemical Society for Writers (2001)
• Grand Gold Medal for services to the province of Lower Austria (2002)
• Gold Medal of the capital Vienna (2002)
• Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2003)
• Erasmus Medal of the Academia Europaea (2003)
• American Institute of Chemists Gold Medal (2004){{cite web|title=American Institute of Chemists Gold Medal |url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/american-institute-of-chemists-gold-medal|publisher=Science History Institute|access-date=February 21, 2018|date=May 31, 2016}}
• Lichtenberg Medal of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences (2005)
• Premio letterario Serono in Rome (2005)
• An Austrian postage stamp with Djerassi's portrait, issued to mark his 80th birthday (2005) The Austrian government also sent him a new Austrian passport.
• Grand Decoration of Honour in Silver for Services to the Republic of Austria (2008){{cite web | url = http://www.parlament.gv.at/PAKT/VHG/XXIV/AB/AB_10542/imfname_251156.pdf | title = Reply to a parliamentary question | language = de | page=1833 | access-date = November 28, 2012 }}
• Honorary doctorate from the faculty of humanities of the Technical University of Dortmund for his literary work (as 21 honorary doctorate) (2009)
• Alecrin Prize (2009, Vigo, Spain){{citation needed|date=February 2015}}
• Djerassi Glacier on Brabant Island in Antarctica is named after Carl Djerassi (2009).[http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/gaz/scar/display_name.cfm?gaz_id=136910 Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica:] Djerassi Glacier.
• Foreign Member of the Royal Society (2010){{cite web| url=http://royalsociety.org/about-us/fellowship/foreign-members/| title = Foreign Members|publisher = Royal Society|access-date = March 20, 2012}}
• Edinburgh Medal (2011)[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-13013712 "Pill inventor Carl Djerassi to receive Edinburgh Medal"], BBC News, April 8, 2011.
• Honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Chemistry and Geosciences, Heidelberg University (2011)
• Honorary doctorate from the Porto University (2011)
• Honorary doctorate from the University of Vienna (2012)
• Honorary doctorate from the Medical University of Vienna (2012)
• Honorary doctorate from the University of Applied Arts, Vienna (2013)
• Honorary doctorate from the Sigmund Freud University, Vienna (2013){{citation needed|date=February 2015}}
• Honorary doctorate from the American University in Bulgaria (2013){{Cite web | url=https://www.aubg.edu/about-us/honorary-degree-recipients/ | title=Honorary Degree Recipients|publisher=American University in Bulgaria|access-date=November 2, 2024}}
• Honorary doctorate from the University of Innsbruck (2014)[http://www.uibk.ac.at/ipoint/news/2014/carl-djerassi-erhielt-ehrendoktorat-der-uni-innsbruck.html.de "Carl Djerassi erhielt Ehrendoktorat"], University of Innsbruck, June 6, 2014.
• Djerassiplatz, the site of the University of Vienna Biology Building is named after him.

An award that eluded Djerassi was the Nobel Prize, where he is considered one of the more notable "snubs" by the Nobel Committee.Inglis-Arkell, Esther, [https://gizmodo.com/what-are-the-unwritten-rules-of-winning-a-nobel-prize-1735682317 "What Are the Unwritten Rules of Winning a Nobel Prize?"], Gizmodo, October 9, 2015 (published & accessed).

Djerassi described himself as a "Jewish atheist"."Carl Djerassi: The Steroid King". Carl Djerassi: The Steroid King. N.p., n.d. Web. October 1, 2016. His parents were both Jewish, but although young Carl was bar mitzvahed, the family was not religiously observant. He characterizes himself as a "Jewish atheist".

Djerassi was married three times and had two children. He and Virginia Jeremiah were married in 1943 and divorced in 1950.{{cite news|last1=Lennon|first1=Troy|title=Father of the pill became patron of young artists|url=http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/father-of-the-pill-became-patron-of-young-artists/story-fnpoi7d0-1227205391534?nk=92a64cd90b71698c3f631b579aebe0c1|access-date=February 2, 2015|work=The Daily Telegraph (Australia)|date=February 3, 2015}} Djerassi married writer Norma Lundholm (1917–2006) later that year.{{Cite web|url=https://almanacnews.com/print/story/2006/12/13/obituary-norma-lundholm-djerassi-writer-poet-world-traveler|title=Obituary: Norma Lundholm Djerassi, writer, poet, world traveler|date=December 13, 2006|website=almanacnews.com|access-date=April 7, 2020}} They had two children together, and were divorced in 1976.{{cite book|editor-last1=Sleeman|editor-first1=Elizabeth|title=The International Who's Who 2004|date=2003|publisher=Europa|location=London|isbn=978-1-85743-217-6|page=437|edition=67th|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SK-81iI6NJQC&pg=PA437|access-date=February 2, 2015}} One year after his second divorce, Djerassi began a relationship with Diane Middlebrook, a Stanford University professor of English and biographer.Haven, Cynthia, [http://news.stanford.edu/news/2008/january9/middlebrook-010908.html "Diane Middlebrook, professor emeritus and legendary biographer, dies at 68"], Stanford University, January 9, 2008. In 1985, they were married and they lived between San Francisco and London, until her death on December 15, 2007, due to cancer.Mills, John, Which Yet Survive. Impressions of Friends, Family and Encounters, Quartet Books, London, 2017

On July 5, 1978, Djerassi's artist daughter Pamela (born 1950; from his second marriage, to Norma Lundholm), committed suicide,{{Vimeo|id=59485470|title=A Conversation with Carl Djerassi}} interviewed by Roger Kornberg, Annual Review of Biochemistry[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00947hh Carl Djerassi, Desert Island Discs], BBC Radio 4, 2002. which is described in his autobiography. With Middlebrook's help, Djerassi then considered how he could help living artists, rather than collecting works of dead ones. He visited existing artist colonies, such as Yaddo and MacDowell, and decided to create his own, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program. He closed his cattle ranch and converted the barn and houses to residential and work space for artists.{{cite news|last1=King|first1=John|title=Diane Middlebrook Memorial Writers' Residences|url=http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Diane-Middlebrook-Memorial-Writers-Residences-2311176.php|access-date=February 4, 2015|work=SFGate|date=September 7, 2011}}{{cite news|title=Cass Calder Smith's Bold New Cabins at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program|url=http://www.architecturaldigest.com/blogs/daily/2012/06/cass-calder-smith-djerassi-resident-artists-program|access-date=February 4, 2015|work=Architectural Digest|date=June 8, 2012}} He and his wife moved to a high rise in San Francisco that they had renovated.

Carl Djerassi died on January 30, 2015, at the age of 91, from complications of liver and bone cancer.{{cite news |author=Robert D. McFadden |title=Carl Djerassi, 91, a Creator of the Birth Control Pill, Dies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/01/us/carl-djerassi-dies-at-91-forever-altered-reproductive-practices-as-a-creator-of-the-pill.html |quote=Carl Djerassi, an eminent chemist who 63 years ago synthesized a hormone that changed the world by creating the key ingredient for the oral contraceptive known as 'the pill,' died at his home in San Francisco on Friday. He was 91. His son, Dale, said the cause was complications of liver and bone cancer.... |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 31, 2015 |access-date=January 31, 2015 }}{{cite news|url=http://forward.com/articles/213863/carl-djerassi-who-helped-discover-birth-control-pi/?|title=Carl Djerassi, Who Helped Discover Birth Control Pill, Dies at 91|publisher=forward.com|date=January 31, 2015}} Upon his death he was survived by his son and grandson.

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category}}

{{wikiquote}}

• [http://www.djerassi.com/ Personal website]
• [http://www.djerassi.com/bio/bio2.html Biography]
• {{cite web|author=Center for Oral History| title= Carl Djerassi |url=https://oh.sciencehistory.org/oral-histories/djerassi-carl|website= Science History Institute }}
• {{cite book|first1= Jeffrey L. |last1=Sturchio|first2= Arnold |last2=Thackray |title=Carl Djerassi, Transcript of an Interview Conducted by Jeffrey L. Sturchio and Arnold Thackray at Stanford University on July 31, 1985 |date=July 31, 1985 |url=https://oh.sciencehistory.org/sites/default/files/djerassi_c_0017_suppl.pdf|place=Philadelphia, PA|publisher=Center for History of Chemistry }}
• [http://www.webofstories.com/gl/carl.djerassi Carl Djerassi tells his life story] at Web of Stories
• [http://www.djerassi.org/ Djerassi Resident Artists Program]
• [http://cen.acs.org/content/dam/cen/91/3/09103-scitech1-Nozoe155.jpg Djerassi’s autograph] from [http://cen.acs.org/articles/91/i3/Autograph-Collector.html The Chemical Record]
• [http://drive.google.com/file/d/1y_30HHlitenXG4rNMEtViLW1YbOOXy6a_OND_nD_5z-0tAjAjB-EyGT9PS-m/edit?usp=sharing/ Bob Weintraub, Israel Chemical Society. Pincus, Djerassi, and Oral Contraceptives]
• {{Internet Archive author |sname= |sopt=w}}

{{Wolf Prize in Chemistry}}

{{FRS 2010}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Djerassi, Carl}}

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