Carl Djerassi (1923–2015)

Few scientists have changed society as much as Carl Djerassi did. By chemically synthesizing a steroid mimic of the hormone progesterone, Djerassi paved the way for the oral contraceptive pill, allowing women for the first time reliably to take control of their own reproductive choices. Djerassi's conviction that 'the pill' made the sexual liberalization of the 1960s possible is widely shared, and chemical control of the fertility cycle was a key ingredient in subsequent advances in reproductive technologies, beginning with in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the late 1960s.
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