Percy Lavon Julian
April 11, 1899 — April 19, 1975
Percy Lavon Julian was an American research chemist whose pioneering work in the synthesis of medicinal compounds from plants — particularly soybeans — transformed medicine, relieved the suffering of arthritis patients worldwide, and made him one of the most important American scientists of the twentieth century. That he accomplished all of this while navigating vicious racial discrimination makes his story one of science's most remarkable.
Defying the Odds in the Deep South
Born on April 11, 1899 in Montgomery, Alabama, Julian was the grandson of an enslaved man. Montgomery's public education system offered Black students only rudimentary schooling, so when Julian was accepted to DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, he arrived academically underprepared — required to study secondary school subjects at night in addition to his college coursework. He graduated valedictorian of his class in 1920.
He earned a PhD in chemistry from the University of Vienna in 1931 — denied that opportunity at American universities that refused Black doctoral candidates. Returning to the US, he joined the faculty at DePauw, where he accomplished the first successful synthesis of the alkaloid physostigmine, used to treat glaucoma, in 1935. It was a landmark achievement that established Julian as a world-class chemist.
The Soybean and Cortisone
Despite his scientific achievements, Julian was denied faculty positions at several major universities purely because of his race. He joined the Glidden Company in 1936 as chief chemist, where he transformed soybeans into a commercial source of sterols — the chemical precursors essential for manufacturing sex hormones like progesterone and testosterone at industrial scale. This work dramatically reduced costs and made hormone therapies accessible to the masses.
His most celebrated achievement came in 1949, when he developed an affordable method to synthesise cortisone — a steroid used to treat rheumatoid arthritis — from soybean compounds. Before Julian's breakthrough, cortisone could only be produced through an enormously expensive 37-step process derived from ox bile. His method made it widely available for the first time.
Did You Know?
When Julian purchased a home in the affluent Chicago suburb of Oak Park in 1950, someone firebombed it — and then, two months later, threw a smoke bomb into his children's bedroom. Rather than move, Julian hired guards and stayed. He went on to become one of Oak Park's most respected residents, and the town later named a school after him.
Entrepreneur and Lasting Legacy
In 1953, Julian founded his own company, Julian Laboratories, which he built into one of the leading producers of sterols and hormones in the world before selling it to Smith Kline & French in 1961 for $2.3 million — making him the first Black chemist to own and operate a pharmaceutical firm. He was awarded the American Chemical Society's Priestley Medal in 1975 and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1990. More than 138 patents bear his name. Julian died of liver cancer on April 19, 1975 — exactly a week after his 76th birthday.