Carl Djerassi

American pharmaceutical chemist and writer

Born: October 29, 1923 · Died: January 30, 2015

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Who was Carl Djerassi?

Carl Djerassi (October 29, 1923 – January 30, 2015) was a Viennese-born Bulgarian-American pharmaceutical chemist, novelist, playwright and co-founder of Djerassi Resident Artists Program with Diane Wood Middlebrook. He is best known for his contribution to the development of oral contraceptive pills, nicknamed the "father of the pill". Carl Djerassi was born in Vienna, Austria, and 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. His mother was Alice Friedmann, a Viennese dentist and physician. Following his parents' divorce, Djerassi and his mother moved to Vienna.

Historical significance

Until the age of 14, he attended the same grammar school that Sigmund Freud had attended many years earlier; 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.

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MLA

“Carl Djerassi.” thisDay, thisday.info/people/carl-djerassi/. Accessed 29 Oct. 2026.

APA

Carl Djerassi. (n.d.). thisDay. Retrieved October 29, 2026, from https://thisday.info/people/carl-djerassi/

Chicago

“Carl Djerassi.” thisDay. Accessed October 29, 2026. https://thisday.info/people/carl-djerassi/.

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