Ernest H. Volwiler

Ernest Henry Volwiler (1893-1992) was an American pharmaceutical chemist born in Hamilton, Ohio, who spent his entire career at Abbott Laboratories, rising from staff chemist to chief executive officer. He co-developed the barbiturate drugs Nembutal in 1930 and Pentothal, or sodium thiopental, in 1934, work that transformed intravenous anesthesia and made surgery safer and more practical. During the Second World War he helped Abbott become one of the firms enlisted by the United States government to produce penicillin and sulfa drugs, and later he served on the National Science Board from 1958 to 1964. He received the Priestley Medal in 1958 and the IRI Medal in 1955, was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1986, and became a major philanthropist after retiring in 1961.