Tadeusz Reichstein


Reichstein, Tadeusz

 

Born July 20, 1897, in Włocławek, Poland. Swiss chemist and biochemist. Fellow of the Royal Society of London.

Reichstein graduated from the Federal Polytechnic School in Zürich in 1921. From 1934 to 1960 he was at the University of Basel, where from 1934 he was a professor, from 1938 head of the subdepartment of pharmacology, and from 1946 to 1960 head of the subdepartment of organic chemistry. His works were devoted to the study of the structure and properties of heterocyclic substances, sugars, vitamins, including ascorbic and pantothenic acids, and steroids, including mainly hormones of the adrenal cortex. He also studied the cardiac glycosides contained in plants.

Reichstein shared a Nobel Prize in 1950 with P. Hench and E. Kendall. He is an honorary member of many academies of sciences, including the Leopoldina German Academy of Naturalists, and also of the Sorbonne and many societies of chemists, biochemists, and pharmacologists in a number of countries.