A Conversation with Carl Djerassi

Carl Djerassi, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at Stanford University, talks about his life and career with Roger Kornberg, Editor of the Annual Review of Biochemistry and Professor at the Department of Structural Biology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. In this interview, part of the AR Conversations series, he explains how he went from being a high school student in Vienna escaping the Nazi regime to developing the first birth-control pill in Mexico. Eventually, he oversaw the development of insecticide-free pest control products, which prevented insects from reaching sexual maturity. And yet, were he to do it all again, he would not major in pure chemistry, but in chemistry as it applies to physics or biology, where he believes the future lies.