March 8, 2005 — Pharmanex Scientific Advisory Board Member Chairman Carl Djerassi, Ph.D., is now featured on his own postage stamp in Austria. In honor of Dr. Djerassi, the water-mark-like printing on the frame sheet of the stamp is made up of tiny steroid molecules! This stamp is a limited edition going on sale today, March 8th, and is 1 EUR a piece.

The stamp highlights the many contributions Dr. Djerassi's has made to the world of science. In 1999 he received the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art (Ehrenkreuz für Wissenschaft und Kunst I. Klasse), and in 2002 the Vienna Golden Achievement Mark (Goldenes Verdienstzeichen des Landes Wien). Although he was born in Vienna, Austria in 1923 and lived there until age 16, he was driven out of Austria by Nazis in 1938. He later reconciled in 2003, and on January 8, 2004, he re-acquired Austrian citizenship.

Carl Djerassi, Pharmanex Scientific Advisory Board Chairman, Professor of Chemistry, Stanford University

The "father of the birth control pill," Carl Djerassi, Chairman of the Pharmanex Scientific Advisory Board, is both an internationally renowned chemist and a prolific writer, not only of scientific works but also of best-selling fiction and two autobiographical works: From the Lab into the World : A Pill for People, Pets, and Bugs (Creators of Modern Chemistry) and The Pill, Pygmy Chimps, and Degas' Horse/the Remarkable Autobiography of the Award-Winning Scientist Who Synthesized the Birth Control Pill. A Stanford University professor of chemistry, he has written more than 1,200 scientific publications and seven monographs.

The recipient of numerous scientific honors, Dr. Djerassi is one of the few Americans to have received both the National Medal of Science (for creating the first steroid oral contraceptive) and the National Medal of Technology (for promoting new approaches to insect control). Dr. Djerassi has also been awarded 17 honorary doctorates and many other prestigious honors, such as the first Wolf Prize in Chemistry, the first Award for the Industrial Application of Science from the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Chemical Society's highest award, the Priestly Medal. His fiction works, mostly in the genre of "science-in-fiction," illustrate the human side of scientists and the personal conflicts they face. His Djerassi Resident Artists Program, founded in 1982, has assisted more than 1000 persons in the visual arts, literature, choreography, performing arts and music.