Julian, Percy (Lavon) (1899–1975)

US chemist and inventor. In 1935 he synthesized the drug physostigmine, used to treat glaucoma. From 1936 he and his associates developed scores of soya derivatives, most notably cortisone, used in the treatment of arthritis and other afflictions.

He was born in Montgomery, Alabama. The grandson of a former slave, he graduated from DePauw University, Indiana, pursued graduate studies at Harvard, and taught chemistry at Howard University. Denied a professorship at Harvard because of his race, he returned to DePauw. In 1953 he established Julian Laboratories, and from 1964 until his death he headed the Julian Research Institute and served as a consultant to the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases.