Percy Lavon Julian: Chemist Who Synthesized Cortisone from Soybeans

Percy Lavon Julian was born in Montgomery, Alabama, the grandson of formerly enslaved people, in a household that prized education despite the constraints of the Jim Crow South. He earned his bachelor's at DePauw University and a master's at Harvard — but Harvard wouldn't let him pursue a doctorate there. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Vienna instead, in 1931.

Julian became known for synthesizing cortisone, hormones, and other medicinal compounds from soybeans. He was the first to fully synthesize physostigmine, used to treat glaucoma, and later pioneered large-scale synthesis of hormones like progesterone and testosterone from plant sterols. That work helped make treatments for arthritis and other conditions dramatically more affordable and accessible to the people who needed them.

What he left behind

• First to achieve full synthesis of physostigmine, used to treat glaucoma
• Pioneered large-scale synthesis of hormones, including progesterone and testosterone, from plant sterols
• His research contributed to methods for synthesizing cortisone from soybeans, helping lower its cost for patients
• Founded his own research company, later sold to a major pharmaceutical firm

Julian earned his degrees at a time when American universities routinely denied Black students doctoral opportunities regardless of merit; he had to go abroad, to Vienna, to finish what U.S. institutions wouldn't let him complete.

What most bios leave out

Julian's soybean research had a wartime application that rarely makes the highlight reel: a soy-protein foam he developed, nicknamed "bean soup," became the basis for Aero-Foam, a fire-suppression product the U.S. Navy used to smother oil and gasoline fires aboard ships and aircraft during World War II. It's credited with saving the lives of thousands of sailors and airmen — a wartime contribution that gets far less attention than his medical work.

His personal life had its own quieter act of courage. In 1950, after years of being turned away from chemical companies once they learned he was Black, Julian bought a home in Oak Park, then an all-white Chicago suburb. Before his family had even moved in, the house was firebombed; it was attacked again the following year with dynamite. Rather than leave, the Julians stayed, hired security, and became the first Black family in the neighborhood. His son later recalled sitting up in a tree outside the house with his father on the nights after the attack, keeping watch together — a memory he described as one of his favorites from childhood, born out of one of the family's most frightening moments.

About this set

Julian's card is one of six in The Patternmakers, part of the Continuum: Past | Present | Becoming postcard series. The Patternmakers gathers scholars and scientists who broke into fields that were never built with them in mind.

Shop Percy Lavon Julian's postcard pack or browse the full Continuum collection.