Tadeus Reichstein

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Tadeus Reichstein
Tadeus Reichstein
Born	July 20, 1897 Włocławek, Congress Poland
Died	August 1, 1996 (aged 99) Basel, Switzerland
Citizenship	Switzerland
Nationality	Poland
Known for	cortisone
Notable awards	Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1950

Tadeusz Reichstein (July 20, 1897 – August 1, 1996) was a Polish-born Swiss Nobel Prize-winning chemist.

He was born into a Jewish family at Włocławek, Congress Poland. After passing his early childhood at Kiev, where his father was an engineer, Reichstein was educated, first at a boarding-school at Jena, Germany.

In 1933, working in Zürich, Switzerland, Reichstein succeeded, independently of Sir Norman Haworth and his collaborators in Britain, in synthesizing vitamin C (ascorbic acid).

Together with E. C. Kendall and P. S. Hench, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1950 for their work on hormones of the adrenal cortex which culminated in the isolation of cortisone.

He died in Basel, Switzerland. The principal industrial process for the artificial synthesis of Vitamin C still bears his name. Reichstein was the longest-lived Nobel laureate at the time of his death, but was surpassed in 2008 by Rita Levi-Montalcini.

[edit] References

Wincewicz, Andrzej; Sulkowska, Mariola & Sulkowski, Stanislaw, “Tadeus Reichstein, co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine: on the occasion of the 110th anniversary of his birth in Poland.”, Hormones (Athens) 6 (4): 341-3, PMID:18055426, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18055426>
Rothschild, M (1999), “Tadeus Reichstein: 20 July 1897-1 August 1996.”, Biographical memoirs of fellows of the Royal Society. Royal Society (Great Britain) 45: 451-67, 1999, PMID:11624287, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11624287>
Sterkowicz, S (1999), “[On the hundredth birthday of the first scientist of Polish ancestry to receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine: Tadeusz Reichstein]”, Prz. Lek. 56 (3): 245-6, 1999, PMID:10442018, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10442018>
Raju, T N (1999), “The Nobel chronicles. 1950: Edward Calvin Kendall (1886-1972); Philip Showalter Hench (1896-1965); and Tadeus Reichstein (1897-1996).”, Lancet 353 (9161): 1370, 1999 Apr 17, PMID:10218568, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10218568>
Tait, S A & Tait, J F (1998), “The correspondence of S.A.S. Simpson and J.F. Tait with T. Reichstein during their collaborative work on the isolation and elucidation of the structure of electrocortin (later aldosterone).”, Steroids 63 (9): 440-53, 1998 Sep, PMID:9727090, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9727090>
Sterkowicz, S (1989), “[Tadeusz Reichstein -- Polish Nobel laureate in the fields of medicine and physiology -- 90th birthday]”, Polski tygodnik lekarski (Warsaw, Poland : 1960) 44 (10-11): 269-72, 1989 Apr 10, PMID:2682560, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2682560>
Sterkowicz, S, “Tadeusz Reichstein--a Polish winner of the Nobel Prize.”, Materia medica Polona. Polish journal of medicine and pharmacy 20 (3): 201-4, PMID:3072452, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3072452>
Sulek, K (1968), “[Nobel prize for Edward Calvin Kendall, Thaddeus Reichstein and Philip Showalter Hench in 1950 for their discoveries related to adrenal cortex hormones, their structure and biological activity]”, Wiad. Lek. 21 (20): 1885-7, 1968 Oct 15, PMID:4883231, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4883231>
Kenez, J (1967), “[Tadeusz Reichstein 70 years old]”, Orvosi hetilap 108 (42): 1998-2000, 1967 Oct 15, PMID:4869310, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4869310>

[edit] External links

Brief bio on the Nobel Website

v • d • e Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine

Johannes Fibiger (1926) · Julius Wagner-Jauregg (1927) · Charles Nicolle (1928) · Christiaan Eijkman / Frederick Hopkins (1929) · Karl Landsteiner (1930) · Otto Warburg (1931) · Charles Sherrington / Edgar Adrian (1932) · Thomas Morgan (1933) · George Whipple / George Minot / William Murphy (1934) · Hans Spemann (1935) · Henry Dale / Otto Loewi (1936) · Albert Szent-Györgyi (1937) · Corneille Heymans (1938) · Gerhard Domagk (1939) · Henrik Dam / Edward Doisy (1943) · Joseph Erlanger / Herbert Gasser (1944) · Alexander Fleming / Ernst Chain / Howard Florey (1945) · Hermann Muller (1946) · Carl Cori / Gerty Cori / Bernardo Houssay (1947) · Paul Müller (1948) · Walter Hess / Egas Moniz (1949) · Edward Kendall / Tadeusz Reichstein / Philip Hench (1950)

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