Did you know that Leopold Ružička received a Nobel Prize for his research in chemistry in 1939? In addition to his work in the chemistry of terpenes and polyterpenes, he also studied the syntheses of scents, as well as steroids and the structure of sex hormones. He discovered a method for synthesizing the male sex hormones androsterone and testosterone.

After obtaining his doctoral degree in Germany, he worked in Switzerland and the Netherlands. He returned to Zurich in 1929, when he became a professor at the University and head of the Organic Chemistry Laboratory of the Federal Polytechnic School (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, “ETH”).

Since Ružička’s efforts had turned the Laboratory in Zurich into a leading institution in the field of organic chemistry, he received the highest scientific honour in Switzerland, the Marcel Benoist Prize. The annual award for chemistry, established in Zurich in 1957, also bears his name.