Colton, Frank Benjamin

Colton, Frank Benjamin

(1923– ) chemist, inventor; born in Bialystok, Poland. He emigrated to the U.S.A. in 1934, was educated at Northwestern University (Ill.) and the University of Chicago and, as a researcher at the Mayo Foundation, helped develop an improved synthesis of cortisone. His pioneering work in steroid chemistry led in 1960 to the development of Enovid, the first oral contraceptive, for which he was patentee. He worked for G. D. Searle and Company from 1951 until his retirement in 1986.