People and Events
Honoring Percy Julian
By USBE
Sep 1, 2006, 20:30

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Copyright 2006 Career Communications Group

The 232nd national meeting of the American Chemical Society will feature a full-day symposium on Dr Percy Julian. He is noted most for his synthesis of cortisone from soybeans used in treating rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory conditions. His synthesis reduced the price of cortisone. Percy Julian was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1990.

Highlights of the ACS symposium “Dr. Percy L. Julian: Scientist, Humanist, Educator, Entrepreneur, and Inspirational Trailblazer,” scheduled for Monday September 11, at 8:30 a.m., will include excerpts from “Forgotten Genius,” a NOVA film that will present the life story of the historically significant organic medicinal chemist in a two-hour "Lives in Science" biography that will broadcast on public television, February 6, 2007 during Black History Month.

Produced in the lavish style of NOVA's Emmy Award-winning "Galileo's Battle for the Heavens," Percy Julian's gripping and largely unknown story is full of vivid period reenactments based on newly accessible family archives and interviews with dozens of Julian's colleagues and relatives. 

Dr. Julian’s achievements are legendary. In 1998, he was recognized by Chemical and Engineering News as one of the “Top 75 Distinguished Contributors to the Chemical Enterprise". He was honored by the U.S. Postal Service, which issued a commemorative stamp in the Black Heritage Series in 1993. Dr. Julian had more than 100 patents and 60 scholarly publications.