Chemist Albert Hofmann has died at the age of 102.

In 1938 Hofmann isolated lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD, while working for the Sandoz chemical company. As he notes in his book LSD: My Problem Child, not a lot happened immediately:

The research report also noted, in passing, that the experimental animals became restless during the narcosis. The new substance, however, aroused no special interest in our pharmacologists and physicians; testing was therefore discontinued.

However five years later he found himself in a dreamlike state. After concluding this was related to the lysergic acid diethylamide tartrate he had just started working with again, possibly through accidental absorption through his fingernails, he notes:

There seemed to be only one way of getting to the bottom of this. I decided on a self-experiment.

The NY Times notes, “He then took LSD hundreds of times, but regarded it as a powerful and potentially dangerous psychotropic drug that demanded respect. More important to him than the pleasures of the psychedelic experience was the drug’s value as a revelatory aid for contemplating and understanding what he saw as humanity’s oneness with nature.”

Although mainly remembered for LSD he continued to work at Sandoz, retiring as Director of Research for the Department of Natural Products in 1971 (Daily Telegraph).

Hofmann was unhappy that research on the drug had been curtailed following its adoption into the counter-culture and subsequent moral panic. On a happier note, Rick Doblin, president of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, recently spoke to Hofmann:

[We] spoke on the phone the day after the Basel conference and he was happy and fulfilled. He’d seen the renewal of LSD psychotherapy research with his own eyes, as had [his wife] Anita. I said that I looked forward to discussing the results of the study with him in about a year and a half and he laughed and said he’d try to help the research however he could, either from this side or ‘the other side’.

MAPS also has a wonderful picture of Hofmann adorning its homepage.

Hofmann’s book Albert Hofmann: LSD – My Problem Child is currently readable here.

Bad taste award: the headline writers at AFP, who came up with ‘Father of LSD’ takes final trip