Born Mar. 8, 1886, in South Norwalk, Connecticut; died May 4, 1972, in Princeton. American biochemist. Member of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the New York Academy of Sciences.

Kendall graduated from Columbia University in 1908. From 1914 to 1950 he was head of the biochemistry section of the Mayo Clinic, and from 1921 to 1951 he was professor of physiological chemistry at the Mayo Foundation (University of Minnesota). In 1952 he became a professor of chemistry at Princeton University.

Kendall’s principal works were devoted to the hormones of the thyroid gland and the adrenal cortex. In 1915 he isolated thyroxine. Between 1936 and 1943 he discovered cortisone (Kendall’s Compound E) in the adrenal cortex and developed a method for obtaining the compound by partial chemical synthesis. With P. Hench, he determined the function of cortisone and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. He obtained glutathione in crystalline form and determined its chemical structure.

Together with Hench and T. Reichstein, Kendall received a Nobel Prize in 1950.