Adolf Butenandt

Adolf Butenandt
Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt in 1921
Born	(1903-03-24)24 March 1903 Lehe/Bremerhaven, German Empire
Died	18 January 1995(1995-01-18) (aged 91) Munich, Germany
Nationality	Germany
Fields	Organic and biochemistry
Institutions	Kaiser Wilhelm Institute / Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry Technical University of Danzig
Doctoral advisor	Adolf Windaus
Notable awards	Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1939) Kriegsverdienstkreuz (1942)

Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt (24 March 1903 – 18 January 1995) was a German biochemist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1939 for his "work on sex hormones." He initially rejected the award in accordance with government policy, but accepted it in 1949 after World War II. He was President of the Max Planck Society from 1960 to 1972.

Born in Lehe, near Bremerhaven, he started his studies at the University of Marburg.

For his Ph.D he joined the working group of the Nobel laureate Adolf Windaus at the University of Göttingen and he finished his studies with a Ph.D. in chemistry in 1927.

Adolf Windaus and Walter Schöller of Schering gave him the advice to work on hormones extracted from ovaries. This research lead to the discovery of estrone and other primary female sex hormones, which were extracted from several thousand liters of urine. While working as professor in Gdańsk at the Chemisches Institut he was continuing his works over hormons extracting progesterone in 1934 and testosterone a year later, obtaining a substantial part of research results awarded later by Nobel Committee in 1939.

For this research he won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1939 together with Leopold Ružička who was involved in the synthesis of several newly discovered steroids.