Dr. Joseph Fried (July 21, 1914 – August 17, 2001) was a Polish-American

organic chemist Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the science, scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic matter, organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain ...

, member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

and the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

.''The New York Times'': Josef Fried, 87, Organic Chemist Noted for Tailored Compounds
/ref> He held 200 patents on chemical compounds, with 43 listing him as the sole holder. He was a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

.''The New York Times'':Fried in Chicago Cancer Post
/ref> Fried discovered fluorohydrocortisone, a chemical used to treat adrenal disorders. He was also director of the organic chemistry at the Squibb Institute. His discoveries were instrumental to the creation of medications to treat inflammatory disorders including as

arthritis Arthritis is a general medical term used to describe a disorder that affects joints. Symptoms generally include joint pain and stiffness. Other symptoms may include redness, warmth, Joint effusion, swelling, and decreased range of motion of ...

psoriasis Psoriasis is a long-lasting, noncontagious autoimmune disease characterized by patches of abnormal skin. These areas are red, pink, or purple, dry, itchy, and scaly. Psoriasis varies in severity from small localized patches to complete b ...

, and various skin allergies.

National Academies Press The US National Academies Press (NAP) was created to publish the reports issued by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (formerly known as the National Research Council (United States), National Research Council), the Na ...

called him "an outstanding organic chemist who made very special contributions to the field of medicine".National Academies Press:JOSEF FRIED BY NELSON J.LEONARD AND ELKAN BLOUT
/ref> Professor

Elias James Corey Elias James Corey (born July 12, 1928) is an American organic chemist. In 1990, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his development of the theory and methodology of organic synthesis", specifically retrosynthetic analysis. Regarded by ma ...

(Nobel laureate, 1990) had this to say of Fried: "He was an outstanding, highly creative scientist who straddled both the worlds of pharmaceutical research and academic science. He was one of my heroes, and I've always thought of him as a model scientist of great character and great human warmth."

Awards and distinctions

Fried became a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1971. He became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1981. He received the

Medicinal Chemistry Medicinal or pharmaceutical chemistry is a scientific discipline at the intersection of chemistry and pharmacy involved with drug design, designing and developing pharmaceutical medication, drugs. Medicinal chemistry involves the identification, ...

Award in 1974 from the

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...

. He also received the Alfred Burger Award in Medicinal Chemistry in 1996. He also received the

Gregory Pincus Gregory Goodwin Pincus (April 9, 1903 – August 22, 1967) was an American biologist and researcher who co-invented the combined oral contraceptive pill. Early life Pincus was one of five siblings born in Woodbine, New Jersey, to immigrant pare ...

Medal from the

Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology The Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research (WFBR) was a non-profit biomedical research institute based in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, United States. History The foundation was established as an independent research center under the name Worces ...

and the Roussel Prize from the Roussel Scientific Institute in Paris in 1994.

Bristol-Myers Squibb The Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, doing business as Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), is an American multinational pharmaceutical company. Headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey, BMS is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies and consist ...

and the University of Chicago launched in 1990 the first of a series of annual Josef Fried Symposia of

Bioorganic Chemistry Bioorganic chemistry is a scientific discipline that combines organic chemistry and biochemistry. It is the branch of life science that deals with the study of biological processes using chemical methods. Protein and enzyme function are examples of ...

. Fried is a member of the Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame.

Career

Josef Fried was born in the town of

Przemyśl Przemyśl () is a city in southeastern Poland with 56,466 inhabitants, as of December 2023. Data for territorial unit 1862000. In 1999, it became part of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship, Subcarpathian Voivodeship. It was previously the capital of Prz ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, on July 21, 1914. Fried received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in 1940. Fried joined the Squibb Institute in 1944 as a head of its antibiotics and steroids department. He was later promoted to director of the organic chemistry section in 1959. In 1963 Fried was appointed professor at the Ben May Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Chicago.

References

External links

Nelson J. Leonard and Elkan Blout, "Josef Fried", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2002)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fried, Josef 1914 births 2001 deaths Organic chemists 20th-century American chemists Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Scientists from Chicago People from Przemyśl Polish emigrants to the United States University of Chicago faculty Leipzig University alumni University of Zurich alumni Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences 20th-century American inventors