Douglas A. Lockard · CC BY-SA 3.0

Carl Djerassi led the chemistry team that first synthesized a progestin potent enough to be taken orally, work that became the basis of the birth control pill and earned him the nickname "father of the pill." Born in Vienna, he built a career as a pharmaceutical chemist while also writing novels and plays exploring science and ethics, and co-founded the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, an artists' retreat in California, with Diane Wood Middlebrook.