chemistry

Josef Fried

Josef Fried is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Josef Fried rather than just read about it. In short: Joseph Fried (July 21, 1914 – August 17, 2001) was a Polish-American organic chemist, member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He held 200 patents on chemical compounds, with 43 listing him as the sole holder.

Key takeaways

Josef Fried belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Josef Fried to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Josef Fried from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Joseph Fried (July 21, 1914 – August 17, 2001) was a Polish-American organic chemist, member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He held 200 patents on chemical compounds, with 43 listing him as the sole holder. He was a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Chicago. Fried discovered fluorohydrocortisone, a chemical used to treat adrenal disorders. He was also director of the organic chemistry at the Squibb Institute. His discoveries were instrumental to the creation of medications to treat inflammatory disorders including as arthritis, psoriasis, and various skin allergies. National Academies Press called him "an outstanding organic chemist who made very special contributions to the field of medicine". Elias James Corey said of Fried: "He was an outstanding, highly creative scientist who straddled both the worlds of pharmaceutical research and academic science. He was one of my heroes, and I've always thought of him as a model scientist of great character and great human warmth."

Awards and distinctions Fried became a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1971. He became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1981. He received the Medicinal Chemistry Award in 1974 from the American Chemical Society. He also received the Alfred Burger Award in Medicinal Chemistry in 1996. He also received the Gregory Pincus Medal from the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology and the Roussel Prize from the Roussel Scientific Institute in Paris in 1994. Bristol-Myers Squibb and the University of Chicago launched in 1990 the first of a series of annual Josef Fried Symposia of Bioorganic Chemistry. Fried is a member of the Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame.

Career Josef Fried was born in the town of Przemyśl, Poland, on July 21, 1914. Fried received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Columbia University in 1940. Fried joined the Squibb Institute in 1944 as a head of its antibiotics and steroids department. He was later promoted to director of the organic chemistry section in 1959. In 1963 Fried was appointed professor at the Ben May Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Chicago.

References

External links Nelson J. Leonard and Elkan Blout, "Josef Fried", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2002)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Josef Fried

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Josef Fried claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Josef Fried before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Josef Fried ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Josef Fried

In research: Josef Fried appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Josef Fried in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Josef Fried is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1914 births, 2001 deaths, 20th-century American chemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Josef Fried outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Josef Fried in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Josef Fried means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Josef Fried out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Josef Fried in simple terms?

Why does Josef Fried matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Josef Fried?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Josef Fried.