Career Milestones
Chemical tour de force (1932-1935)
Not long after his return from Vienna, Julian suddenly faced
personal and professional problems that threatened to end his career
just as it was beginning. In characteristically bold fashion, he
resolved to take on a challenge that could save or destroy him as a
chemist: synthesizing physostigmine. This alkaloid proved effective
in treating glaucoma, a disease responsible for 15 percent of all
cases of blindness in the United States. Any scientist who could
fully synthesize the alkaloid in a lab would receive considerable
international attention, but pursuing physostigmine was risky.
Leading organic chemist Sir Robert Robinson had already published
nine papers on the alkaloid, and Julian chanced committing
professional suicide by challenging the expert's findings. In the
end, Julian and colleague Josef Pikl proved Robinson in error and
completed the synthesis, a coup that many chemists still marvel at
today.