Richard Kuhn was a Nobel Prize-winning organic chemist who devoted much of his life to studying the synthesis of vitamins and carotenoids, the fat-soluble yellow pigments that are found in plants. He researched the chemistry of algae sex cells and optical stereochemistry, and spent a great deal of time understanding carbohydrates. He was determined to succeed in his work by uncovering the practical applications of substances in the fields of medicine and agriculture. Later in his career, Kuhn concentrated on studying how the body fights disease using organic compounds.

Kuhn was born in Vienna, Austria, on December 3, 1900, to Hofrat Richard Clemens, a hydraulics engineer, and Angelika (Rodler) Kuhn, an elementary school teacher. After spending almost ten years of his life at home under the educational guidance of his mother, Kuhn entered the Döbling Gymnasium, where he attended classes with future Nobel Prize-winning physicist Wolfgang Pauli. After...