Tadeus Reichstein

Polish-Swiss chemist (1897-1996)

Tadeusz Reichstein (20 July 1897 – 1 August 1996) was a Polish-born Swiss chemist, botanist and Nobel laureate.

Tadeusz Reichstein
Born20 July 1897
DiedAugust 1, 1996(1996-08-01) (aged 99)
NationalityPolish, Swiss
CitizenshipSwitzerland
Known forcortisone
AwardsNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1950

Reichstein was born into a Jewish family at Włocławek, Congress Poland, and spent his early childhood at Kiev, where his father was an engineer. He began his education at boarding-school in Jena, Germany.

In 1933, working in Zürich, Switzerland, Reichstein made vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in what is now called the Reichstein process.

Reichstein, E.C. Kendall and P.S. Hench were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1950 for their discovery of cortisone.

He died in Basel, Switzerland. The main industrial process for the artificial creation of Vitamin C still bears his name. Reichstein was the longest-lived Nobel laureate at the time of his death, but was beaten in 2008 by Rita Levi-Montalcini.

References change

  • Rothschild, M (1999), "Tadeus Reichstein: 20 July 1897-1 August 1996.", Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. Royal Society (Great Britain), vol. 45, pp. 451–67, PMID 11624287
  • Sterkowicz, S (1999), "[On the hundredth birthday of the first scientist of Polish ancestry to receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine: Tadeusz Reichstein]", Prz. Lek., vol. 56, no. 3, pp. 245–6, PMID 10442018
  • Wincewicz A, Sulkowska M, Sulkowski S., A; Sulkowska, M; Sulkowski, S (2007), "Tadeus Reichstein, co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine: on the occasion of the 110th anniversary of his birth in Poland.", Hormones (Athens), vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 341–3, PMID 18055426{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

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