Alexander Theodore "Sasha" Shulgin (June 17, 1925 – June 2, 2014) was a prolific American medicinal chemist, biochemist, organic chemist, pharmacologist, psychopharmacologist, and author. He is credited with introducing MDMA (ecstasy) to psychologists in the late 1970s for psychopharmaceutical use and for the discovery, synthesis and personal bioassay of over 230 psychoactive compounds for their psychedelic and entactogenic potential. In 1991 and 1997, he and his wife Ann Shulgin authored the b ...