By David Jay Brown - Raphael Mechoulam, Ph.D., is the Lionel Jacobson Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he has been working on cannabinoid chemistry (a term he coined) for over forty years. Throughout this time Dr. Mechoulam and colleagues have made some of the most important contributions to the field of cannabinoid research. His lab was the first to identify and synthesize delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive compound in cannabis. This discovery in 1964 (with Dr. Yehiel Gaoni) opened the door to a whole new field of medical research that began exploring, not only the therapeutic potential of THC (marketed as Marinol in America), but other natural and synthetic cannabinoids as well, and offered exciting new insights into how the brain functions.

http://www.smart-publications.com/articles/MOM-mechoulam.php for the whole article