Carl Djerassi was born on October 29, 1923 in Vienna, Austria. He was married to Diane Middlebrook, Norma Lundholm and Virginia Jeremiah. He died on January 30, 2015 in San Francisco, California, USA.
Prefessor emeritus of chemistry at Stanford University who in 1951 together with Mexican Luis E. Miramontes and Hungarian George Rosenkranz, participated in the invention of progestin norethindrone, which became the first successful oral contraceptive widely known as the pill.
Beginning in the 1980s, he wrote about 20 books including "This Man's Pill," a memoir, and novels such as "Cantor's Dilemma.".