Adolf Butenandt

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Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}; 24 March 1903 – 18 January 1995) was a German biochemist.<ref name=STR /> He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1939 for his "work on sex hormones." He initially rejected the award in accordance with government policy, but accepted it in 1949 after World War II.<ref name=STR>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="frs">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> He was President of the Max 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 named bombykol.

Education and early lifeEdit

Born in Lehe, near Bremerhaven, he started his studies at the University of Marburg. For his PhD he joined the working group of the Nobel laureate Adolf Windaus at the University 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 of Derris elliptica which he isolated and characterized. After his Habilitation he became lecturer in Göttingen 1931.

Professional careerEdit

He became a professor ordinarius at the Technical University of Danzig 1933–1936.<ref name="ReferenceA" /> In 1933 Butenandt signed the Vow of allegiance of the Professors of the German Universities and High-Schools to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialistic State. In 1936 he applied for the directorship of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institut (later the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry) in Berlin-Dahlem<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> while also joining the NSDAP on 1 May 1936 (party member No. 3716562). The earlier director of the Kaiser Wilhelm institute was Carl Neuberg, who had been removed for being a Jew. His work on rotenones was considered useful by the Nazi leadership as it could be useful for controlling lice among soldiers in the trenches. As the head of a leading institute, he applied for government funding on concentrated research labeled kriegswichtig (important for the war), some of which focused on military projects like the improvement of oxygen uptake for high-altitude bomber pilots.<ref name=":0" />

File:Estrone structure.svg

Estrone

Adolf Windaus and Walter Schöller of Schering gave him the advice to work on hormones extracted from ovaries. This research lead to the discovery of estrone and other primary female sex hormones, which were extracted from several thousand liters of urine.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> While working as professor in Danzig at the Chemisches Institut he was continuing his works over hormones extracting progesterone in 1934 and testosterone a year later, the research results were along with the synthesis of steroids by Leopold Ružička considered significant enough to be awarded later by Nobel Committee in 1939.<ref name="ReferenceA">Template:Cite journal</ref> In 1940 he was involved in research on a hormone treatment to make long submarine voyages more comfortable for submariners in the Kriegsmarine.<ref name=":0" />

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.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref> When the institute moved to Tübingen in 1945 he became a professor at the University of Tübingen. In 1948 he was considered for the chair for physiological medicine at the University of Basel.<ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He entered in negotiations but eventually was convinced by the chemical industry to stay in Germany.<ref name=":1" /> In 1956, when the institute relocated to Martinsried, a suburb of Munich, Butenandt became a professor at the University of Munich. He also served as president of the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science following Otto Hahn from 1960 to 1972.

Butenandt is credited with the discovery and naming of the silkworm moth pheromone Bombykol in 1959.

Butenandt died in Munich in 1995, at the age of 91.<ref name="Die Bundesregierung informiert w592">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His wife Template:Ill, born in 1906, died in 1995 at 88.<ref name="Archivportal-D s039">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> They had seven children.<ref name="Berliner Zeitung 2004 s028">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Honours and awardsEdit

1939: Nobel Prize in Chemistry (shared with Leopold Ruzicka) for the identification of the sex hormones, oestrogen, progesterone and androsterone<ref name="Digital Story – Adolf Butenandt u373">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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1942: War Merit Cross, Second Class (Germany)
1943: War Merit Cross, First Class (Germany)
1953: Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize<ref name="Goethe-Universität 1986 i005">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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1959/1964: Knight Commander's Cross and Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany<ref name="ARD Mediathek 1959 u776">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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1960: Honorary Citizen of the City of Bremerhaven<ref name="Seestadt Bremerhaven 2011 k643">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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1960: President of the Max Planck Society<ref name="Harnack House of the Max Planck Society 2023 u183">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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1961: Wilhelm Normann Medal of the German Society for Fat Research
1962: Bavarian Order of Merit
1962: Pour le Mérite<ref name="ORDEN POUR LE MÉRITE p340">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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1964: Austrian Decoration for Science and Art<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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1967: Cultural Honor Prize of the City of Munich<ref name="n280">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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1969: Commander of the French Legion of Honour
1972: Ordre des Palmes Académiques
1981: Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art<ref name="Historisches Lexikon Bayerns s451">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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1985: Grand Cross 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany<ref>Chronik University of Munich, p.166</ref>
1985: Honorary Citizen of the City of Munich<ref name="BR 2017 o475">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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1994: Grand Gold Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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1951–1992: 31 participations in the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings (record)<ref name="Lindau Nobel Mediatheque 2015 d069">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Honorary doctoratesEdit

Butenandt received 14 honorary doctorates,<ref>University of Marburg</ref> 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).<ref name="Piosik 1998 a797">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Politechnika Gdańska f839">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>