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Famous Residents
Born December 22, 1917, Lewis Hastings Sarett is one of Champaign’s most famous residents. Sarett was born and raised in Champaign, went to school at Northwestern University, and started work for Merck as a biochemist in 1942. In his 38 years with Merck, Sarett pioneered and collaborated on several projects, but the most important would have to be his research with synthetic hormone cortisone which now serves as an effective means of treating rheumatoid arthritis.