Dr Leo Henryk Sternbach (May 7, 1908 - September 28, 2005) was a Polish-Jewish chemist who is credited with inventing the benzodiazepine, a class of tranquilizers. He was born in Abbazia, then in Austria-Hungary and now part of Croatia. He received his chemistry degree from the University of Krakow. He worked for Hoffmann-La Roche in Basel, Switzerland, which helped him to flee to the United States in 1941 to escape the Nazis. Wikipedia
"It gave you a feeling of well-being," Sternbach told The Associated Press in a 2003 interview on the 40th anniversary of Valium. web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Culture/6738.htm
Leo Henryk Sternbach, Ph.D., an award-winning chemist and one of the inventors of the first blockbuster drug, Valium (diazepam), passed away on September 28, 2005 surrounded by his family. www.rocheusa.com/newsroom/current/2005/pr2005092901.html
The definitive Wikipedia entry for Leo Sternbach. Wikipedia is the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Sternbach
