The Polish organic chemist Tadeus Reichstein (1897-1996) shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries relating to the hormones of the adrenal cortex.

The son of Isidor Reichstein, an engineer, Tadeus Reichstein was born in Wloclawek, Poland, on July 20, 1897. In 1914, shortly after his family moved to Zurich, he became a naturalized Swiss citizen. He began the study of chemistry at the State Technical College at Zurich in 1916, qualified in 1920, and in 1922 graduated as a doctor of philosophy in chemistry. For some years thereafter he investigated the cause of the flavor of coffee. In 1929 he became lecturer in organic and pharmaceutical chemistry at the Zurich Technical College, where in 1934 he was appointed titular professor, and in 1937 associate professor, of organic chemistry. In 1933 he synthesized ascorbic acid, independently of (Sir) Norman Haworth and by a different process.

In 1938 Reichstein was appointed professor of pharmaceutical chemistry, and in...