Chemist, he was born in Neisse (Silesia), which is currently the city of Nysa, in Poland.
He studied chemistry at the Technical College of Munich, specializing in Organic Chemistry. After the rise to power of the Nazi party he emigrated to Switzerland and after staying for two years he emigrated to the United States where he acquired citizenship in 1944. He works in the Department of Biochemistry at Columbia University where he received his doctorate. Later he went on to work in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge (Massachusetts) and at the University of Chicago. He obtained the professorship of biochemistry at Harvard University.
Independently of Feodor Lynen, he dedicated himself to the study of the cholesterol synthesis process, discovering that acetic acid is the beginning of a successive chain of chemical reactions whose final product is cholesterol. Both researchers contributed to the knowledge of the intermediate metabolism of fats and lipids. Advances in this field were decisive in the study of circulatory diseases and the subsequent treatment of arteriosclerosis.
He was one of the last researchers to discover the important role of cholesterol in the formation of sex hormones, a discovery that paved the way for the biosynthesis of active steroids.
He was awarded, along with Feodor Lynen, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1964.
Source: Wikipedia