Percy Lavon Julian
Pioneering chemist Percy Lavon Julian synthesized physostigmine, which is used to treat glaucoma, and cortisone, which is used in treating inflammatory conditions including rheumatoid arthritis. He also developed a fire-extinguishing foam that has saved lives by stopping gasoline and oil fires.
Julian was born in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1899. His grandparents had formerly been enslaved and his mother Elizabeth Lena Adams, a schoolteacher, and his father James Sumner Julian, a railroad mail clerk, strongly believed in the importance of education despite the challenges of persistent racist policies. Julian adopted his parents’ ideals.
Because no high schools in the area were open to Black students at the time, after the eighth grade, Julian moved to Birmingham, Alabama. Here, he had just one option – to attend a teacher training school for Black students. Though he was only able to continue at this school through the 10th grade, he was accepted at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana.
While he had to take evening classes to account for his nontraditional high school education, Julian soon flourished at DePauw, and he went on to be named a member of the Sigma Xi honorary society and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. When he graduated in 1920, he was the class valedictorian.
Following the guidance of an adviser, Julian took a chemistry teaching position at Fisk University, a Black college in Nashville, Tennessee. He excelled in this position, earning the Austin Fellowship in chemistry to attend graduate school at Harvard University.
Julian earned a master’s degree from Harvard in 1923. However, Harvard did not allow him to pursue a doctorate. Instead, he continued to teach at Black colleges until he received his doctorate from the University of Vienna in 1931. While in Vienna, Julian wrote in a letter home, “For the first time in my life, I recognize that publications and research will be, for me, as natural a thing as going to bed and eating a meal.”
After completing his formal education, Julian returned to DePauw as a research fellow specializing in synthesis, the process of transforming substances into another using planned chemical reactions. In 1935, he and a colleague determined how to synthesize physostigmine, a type of plant compound found in Calabar beans. “It all began with a simple little bean,” Julian wrote. “It was a beautiful, purple bean when I first got it. But it is not only beautiful in its appearance, but also in the laboratory it has within it.” This remarkable discovery led to the first-ever effective drug treatment for glaucoma.
Despite DePauw denying Julian a full professor position due to discriminatory policies, his groundbreaking research cemented his status among the great chemists of his time.
Julian left academia to become the director of research at the Glidden Co., a paint and varnish manufacturer. There, he developed a process for preparing and isolating soybean protein, which could be used to coat and size paper, create cold water paints and size textiles. Julian also was able to use a soy protein to produce “AeroFoam,” a flame-retardant material that was used by the U.S. Navy and saved countless sailors’ lives during World War II.
In 1953, Julian left Glidden to start Julian Laboratories. Here, as he continued to research soybean synthesis, he discovered how to synthesize the hormones progesterone, testosterone and cortisone. Cortisone became a key ingredient in treating rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory conditions. In 1961, Julian sold his business to pharmaceutical company Smith, Kline and French for $2.3 million. He later established Julian Research Institute, a nonprofit research organization.
Over the course of his lifetime, Julian earned 88 U.S. patents for his revolutionary work. One of the most important chemists in America’s history, as well as an influential advocate for human rights, Julian received several honorary degrees and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1973. In 1990, the American Chemical Society named his synthesis of physostigmine one of the top 25 greatest achievements in the history of American chemistry.