science · 25 December 1876 · 148 years ago
birth
Born 25 Dec 1876; died 9 Jun 1959 at age 82.
German organic chemist, who was awarded the 1928 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for research "for the services rendered through his research into the constitution of the sterols and their connection with the vitamins", the first Nobel prize for work in human nutrition. Windaus began his studies in 1901 with the steroid cholesterol since nothing was known about its structure at the time. In 1926, he proved that ultraviolet light (from sunlight or laboratory sources) activates the compound ergosterol and gives vitamin D, which is valuable in preventing the rickets bone disease. He later synthetically prepared vitamin D3, discovered histamine, and contributed to the synthesis of vitamin B.
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