Leopold Ruzicka worked in what he referred to as the"borderland" between bio-organic chemistry and biochemistry. His studies of odorous natural products led to his discovery of carbon rings with many more carbon atoms than had been originally thought possible. His research also contributed important information on how living things biosynthesize some steroids and sex hormones. For this work he shared the 1939 Nobel Prize in chemistry.

Leopold Stephen Ruzicka was born on September 13, 1887, to Stjepan and Amalija (Sever) Ruzicka. Ruzicka attended elementary and high school in Osijek, Croatia (later part of Yugoslavia), where he received a classical education (Latin and Greek), and was initially determined to enter the Catholic priesthood. As a teenager, he changed his interests to chemistry, and upon graduation began to look for graduate schools in Germany and Switzerland. He eventually settled on the Technische Hochschule in Karlsruhe, Germany.

Ruzicka obtained his doctorate in only...