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Percy Lavon Julian was an African American chemist. He was a very important man and was a grandson of a slave. Dr. Julian was born on April 11, 1899 in Montgomery, Alabama. Percy Lavon Julian attended De Paul University and Harvard University. Later on in his life Percy Lavon Julian got a PhD. He became Dr. Julian, he taught chemistry at Fisk University, West Virginia State College for Negroes, Howard and De Pauw University. In 1936 at the Glidden Company in Chicago, he began researching soybeans. Dr. Julian  became Director of Chemical Development before leaving to start his own companies. During his research Dr. Julian isolated some simple compounds in natural products. Then he started to do some research and investigation. Julian wanted to see why the compounds in the natural product changed into chemicals essential to life such as vitamins and hormones. When he found out , Dr. Julian tried to create all the compounds artificially. Later on with his life he attracted attention by synthesizing the drug physostigmine. Synthesizing means to produce a new substance as a result of a chemical or reaction involving two or more simple substances. Physostigmine is a drug that is used to treat glaucoma. Glaucoma is a disease that has a high pressure of liquid in the eye. He began to refine the soya protein that became the basis of Aero Foam a fire extinguisher used in the U.S Navy in World War II. His most famous discovery was the synthesis of cortisone. It is used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases. In 1950 Dr. Julian was named "Chicago's Man Of The Year" in the Chicago Sun-Times poll. After he moved to an all white suburb of Oak Park some white men were not happy about that. They thought he should not be in their neighborhood just because he was black. So they bombed and burned down his house. He was awfully mad but that didn't stop him. He was still dynamic. He started a fund-raiser for the NAACP for their project to sue the enforce civil-rights legislation. He held more than 100 chemical patents and won many awards and honorary degrees. He died on April 19, 1975. He will be famous for all the things he did. He overcame many hard times but his research still helps people today. |