Lewis Hastings Sarett

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Hastings_Sarett

Lewis Hastings Sarett (December 22, 1917 – November 29, 1999) was an American organic chemist. While serving as a research scientist at Merck & Co., Inc., synthesized cortisone.

Biography

He was born in Champaign, Illinois. His father was Lew Sarett, a renowned Jewish poet and professor and an uncle of former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. He lived in Laona, Wisconsin for a time and then attended high school in Highland Park, Illinois . He received a Bachelor of Science from Northwestern University in 1939 (Phi Beta Kappa) and his doctorate from Princeton University.

He worked for Merck & Co. for 38 years retiring in 1982. He invented a Process of Treating Pregnene Compounds Cortisone, Patent Number 2,462,133.

Named after him is the Sarett Oxidation which is the oxidation of an alcohol to a ketone or an aldehyde using chromic oxide and pyridine. Primary alcohols will be oxidised to aldehydes and not carboxylic acids.

Writing career

He is also famous for writing the poem The Four Little Foxes to raise awareness about animal rights.

Honors and awards

1964 Scheele Award
1972 Chemical Pioneer Award from the American Institute of Chemists
1975 National Medal of Science
1976 Perkin Medal
1980 Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame
1980 Awarded the IRI Medal from the Industrial Research Institute for his contributions to technology leadership
1981 American Institute of Chemists Gold Medal

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The New York Times
Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company
December 27, 1999, Monday

HEADLINE: Dr. Lewis Hastings Sarett, 81, Leader in Cortisone Research
BYLINE: By WOLFGANG SAXON

Dr. Lewis Hastings Sarett, an organic chemist who received the National Medal of Science for his work with cortisone and other substances as the senior vice president for science and technology of Merck & Company, died on Nov. 29 at his home in Viola, Idaho. He was 81 and lived in Princeton and Akillman, N.J., before he retired in 1982. The cause was advanced colitis, his family said.

Dr. Sarett was one of 15 scientists to receive the National Medal of Science, the nation’s highest award for scientific achievement, from President Gerald R. Ford in 1975. He was cited for his contributions to the chemical synthesis of various chemotherapeutic agents, including cortisone, used in the treatment of inflammatory, allergic and neoplastic diseases.

In 1980 Dr. Sarett was elected to the National Inventors Hall of Fame, created by the National Council of Patent Law Associations and the Patent and Trademark Office in 1973. Among his other honors were the Wallace H. Carothers Award of the American Chemical Society (1986), the James Madison Medal of Princeton University (1983).

He was born in Champaign, Ill., and was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Northwestern University in 1939. He received a Ph.D. in chemistry from Princeton in 1942, and then joined Merck in Rahway, N.J.