After Carl was driven out of his hometown Vienna in 1938 he became a chemist in the USA and then moved to Mexico, where he synthesized the first synthetic progesterone-like molecule. His work is probably one of the most amazing examples how scientific discoveries can change the social fabric of the world and can literally affect the lives of billions. Among many other things, he also synthesized the first cortisone, which to this day is a mainstay in medicine. 

After retiring as a Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University, he became a renowned writer starting an entire genre termed “science in fiction”. He wrote great novels, theater plays, or poetry and called himself an intellectual polygamist, somebody who can be brilliant in science as well as art. In one of his short stories he proposed to study the chemistry of tears to find biomarkers of emotions, something which was actually done many years later. 

A true giant of science and art and humanity has left us, somebody who changed life as we knew it, somebody who has his place in the pantheon of history.

In his last book, a biography published around his 90th birthday and which he presented to us in early December, one of his last public appearances, he wrote as a teaser that his shoes were found on a beach and that he went missing, presuming suicide. However, he just faked his death and is actually watching us and smiling from his clandestine place. Now Carl is gone…the chemistry of tears has changed a little, but he continues to affect our lives and continues to smile.

Josef Penninger