Ernest H. Volwiler

Ernest Henry Volwiler was born on August 22, 1893, to Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Volwiler of Hamilton, Ohio, German-speaking immigrants. They lived on a farm near the intersection of Layhigh and Robinson roads in Morgan Township, Butler County, Ohio. As a child, Volwiler and his brother Albert Tangeman Volwiler attended a one-room schoolhouse. Later, Ernest attended Morgan Twp. High School in Okeana, Ohio, graduating in 1909. He then spent a year teaching in a country school, to earn money for university. He went on to receive a master's degree and Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Illinois in 1916 and 1918. Starting in 1915 as a summer student, Volwiler worked with Clarence Derick's Organic Chemical Manufactures unit at the University of Illinois, learning to make and sell chemicals that had previously been imported from Germany. From 1916 to 1917 Volwiler served as Chemist-in-Charge of Organic Chemical Manufactures. From 1917 to 1918, he was a Fellow in Chemistry at the University of Illinois. ==Abbott Laboratories==

Recruited by Wallace C. Abbott, Volwiler joined Abbott Laboratories as a research chemist in 1918. Nembutal Volwiler was a pioneer in the field of anesthetic pharmacology, assisting in the development of two breakthrough drugs, the barbiturates Nembutal and Pentothal. Nembutal, developed by Ernest H. Volwiler and Donalee L. Tabern of Abbott Laboratories in 1930, was a novel barbiturate that could induce sleep within 20 minutes. It had the advantage of rarely producing hangovers or other side effects. An oral-hypnotic barbiturate, Nembutal has a long narcotic duration, with attendant risk of abuse. In the mid 1930s, Volwiler and Tabern spent three years screening over 200 candidate compounds in search of a substance which could be injected directly into the blood stream to produce unconsciousness. They eventually discovered that 5-ethyl-5-(1-methylbutyl)-2-thiobarbituric acid, a sulfur-bearing analogue of Nembutal, was fast, effective and lacked side effects such as twitching or delirium. Volwiler and Tabern were awarded U.S. Patent No. 2,153,729 in 1939 for the discovery of thiopental. Pentothal's discovery revolutionized intravenous anesthesia. Abbott was one of five companies enlisted in 1941 by the U. S. government to develop penicillin. Wartime Intelligence At the end of World War II, Volwiler was asked to visit German chemistry facilities on an intelligence mission to assess the types and extent of Germans chemical technology. Following just days after the Allied troops, he viewed bombed industrial facilities and talked to German scientists. Volwiler did not find the scientists difficult to speak with, remembering "Oh, they were scared to death and they were very cooperative." The visit yielded important information, previously unknown, about the types of chemicals being used in German chemical warfare. the treatment of epilepsy, and the development of the non-caloric sweetener Sucaryl for use in diabetic diets. He retired in 1961. From 1958 to 1964, Volwiler served a six-year term on the National Science Board, appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The NSB is the 24-member governing board of the National Science Foundation. ==Philanthropy==

Volwiler was an active community leader and philanthropist serving, among others, on the boards of Lake Forest College and the Phi Kappa Tau Foundation. He served on the Board of Regents helping to establish the United States National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, in 1959. He made major philanthropic gifts to his alma maters, Miami University and the University of Illinois. In 1983, he donated $250,000 to Miami University to create a research professorship, the Ernest H. Volwiler Distinguished Research Professor in Chemistry, which has been awarded every three years beginning in 1984. In 1989, he contributed an additional $450,000 to endow a chair in the chemistry department. He also established Ernest H. Volwiler Distinguished Scientist Lectureship and the Ernest H. Volwiler Chair in Natural Sciences and Mathematics at Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, Ill., where he had been a trustee. Following Ernest Volwiler's death, the Ernest H. and Lillian H. Volwiler Fund was created at the Chicago Community Trust to be used in support of education. ==Awards and honors==

Volwiler received honorary degrees from Northwestern University, Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, St. Louis College of Pharmacy, Southwestern at Memphis, Coe College, Knox College and Lake Forest College. IRI Medal from the Industrial Research Institute in 1955, the American Chemical Society's Priestley Medal in 1958, and the American Institute of Chemists Gold Medal in 1960. Volwiler and Tabern were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1986 for their work on Pentothal. The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy gives the Volwiler Research Achievement Award in Volwiler's memory. Abbott established the Volwiler Society in his honor in 1985 to recognize the company's most distinguished scientists and engineers. == Family ==

Volwiler's brother was the noted Ohio University historian, Albert T. Volwiler. Ernest Volwiler married Lillian F. Huggler (1894-1991) in 1920, they remained married for 71 years. The couple were survived by two daughters and a son, nine grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren. ==External links==