Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt (German pronunciation:[ˈaːdɔlfˈbuːtənant]ⓘ; 24 March 1903 – 18 January 1995) was a Germanbiochemist.[1] He was awarded theNobel Prize in Chemistry in 1939 for his "work onsex hormones." He initially rejected the award in accordance with government policy, but accepted it in 1949 afterWorld War II.[1][2][3][4] He was President of theMax Planck Society from 1960 to 1972. He was also the first, in 1959, to discover the structure of the sex pheromone of silkworms, which he namedbombykol.
Born in Lehe, nearBremerhaven, he started his studies at theUniversity of Marburg. For his PhD he joined the working group of the Nobel laureateAdolf Windaus at theUniversity of Göttingen and he finished his studies with a PhD in chemistry in 1927. His doctoral research was on the chemistry of the insecticidal toxin found in the roots ofDerris elliptica which he isolated and characterized. After hisHabilitation he became lecturer inGöttingen 1931.
Adolf Windaus and Walter Schöller ofSchering gave him the advice to work on hormones extracted fromovaries. This research lead to the discovery ofestrone and other primary femalesex hormones, which were extracted from several thousand liters ofurine.[8][9] While working as professor inDanzig at theChemisches Institut he was continuing his works over hormones extractingprogesterone in 1934 andtestosterone a year later, the research results were along with the synthesis of steroids byLeopold Ružička considered significant enough to be awarded later by Nobel Committee in 1939.[5] In 1940 he was involved in research on a hormone treatment to make long submarine voyages more comfortable for submariners in the Kriegsmarine.[7]
Butenand's involvement with the Nazi regime and various themes of research led to criticism after the war, and even after his death the exact nature of his political orientation during the Nazi era has never been fully resolved.[7] When the institute moved toTübingen in 1945 he became a professor at theUniversity of Tübingen. In 1948 he was considered for the chair for physiological medicine at theUniversity of Basel.[10] He entered in negotiations but eventually was convinced by the chemical industry to stay in Germany.[10] In 1956, when the institute relocated toMartinsried, a suburb ofMunich, Butenandt became a professor at theUniversity of Munich. He also served as president of theMax Planck Society for the Advancement of Science followingOtto Hahn from 1960 to 1972.
Butenandt received 14 honorary doctorates,[28] including Tübingen (1949), Munich (1950), Graz (1957), Leeds (1961), Thessaloniki (1961), Madrid (1963), Vienna (1965), St. Louis (1965), Berlin (1966), Cambridge (1966) and Gdansk (1994).[29][30]
^Jaenicke, L. (1995). "Adolf Butenandt: 24. 3. 1903 - 18. 1. 1995".Chemie in unserer Zeit.29 (3):163–165.doi:10.1002/ciuz.19950290313.
^abPiosik, R. (2003). "Adolf Butenandt und sein Wirken an der Technischen Hochschule Danzig".CHEMKON.10 (3):135–138.doi:10.1002/ckon.200390038.
^Mertens, L. (2003). "Nur"Zweite Wahl" oder Die Berufung Adolf Butenandts zum Direktor des KWI für Biochemie".Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte.26 (3):213–222.doi:10.1002/bewi.200390058.
Angelika Ebbinghaus, Karl-Heinz Roth (2002). "Von der Rockefeller Foundation zur Kaiser-Wilhelm/Max-Planck-Gesellschaft: Adolf Butenandt als Biochemiker und Wissenschaftspolitiker des 20. Jahrhunderts".Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft.50 (5):389–418.Schieder, Wolfgang (2004).Adolf Butenandt und die Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft: Wissenschaft, Industrie und Politik im "Dritten Reich". Göttingen: Wallstein-Verlag. p. 450.ISBN3-89244-752-7.
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