Adolf Butenandt's groundbreaking research into sex hormones led to the formulation of the compounds estrone and androsterone , hormones involved in the regulation of sexual processes in the body. He has worked on both male and female sex hormones using microanalytical methods developed by the Austrian chemist Fritz Pregl. By uncovering the underlying structure of sex hormones , Butenandt opened biochemical study to the relationship of the chemical structure of sex hormones and carcinogenic substances. For his work, Butenandt was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1939, an award that he shared with Leopold Ruzicka but was unable to receive until 1949 because the Nazi government did not allow him to accept it.

Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt was born in Bremerhaven-Lehe (now Wesermünde), Germany, on 24 March 1903, to Otto Louis Max Butenandt, a businessman, and Wilhelmina Thomfohrde Butenandt. He received his basic education in Bremerhaven at the Oberrealschule, after which...