Carl Djerassi was an Austrian-born Bulgarian-American chemist, novelist, and playwright best known for his contribution to the development of oral contraceptive pills. He was born on October 29, 1923 in Vienna, Austria. Djerassi started his college career at Newark Junior College, briefly attended Tarkio College, and then studied chemistry at Kenyon College, where he graduated summa cum laude. After one year at CIBA, he moved to the University of Wisconsin Madison where he earned his Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1945. In 1957, he became vice president of research at Syntex in Mexico City while on leave of absence from Wayne State. In 1960 Djerassi became a professor of chemistry at Stanford University, a position he held until 2002 but only part-time as he never left industry. From 1968 until 1972 he also served as president of Syntex Research at Palo Alto. In 2000, he received the Othmer Gold Medal. In 1968, he started a new company, Zoecon, which focused on environmentally soft methods of pest control, using modified insect growth hormones to stop insects from metamorphosing from the larval stage to the pupal and adult stages. Zoecon was eventually acquired by Occidental Petroleum, which later sold it to Sandoz, now Novartis. Part of Zoecon survives in Dallas, Texas, making products to control fleas and other pests. He died on January 30, 2015 in San Francisco, California, United States.