I was born in Tunisia in July 1941, during World War II. The war did not leave me many memories, as I was a bit young even at the 1945 armistice. In Tunis I was educated at the College Alaoui and Lycée Carnot until 1957 when I was transferred to the Prytanée Militaire à La…

This biography is intended to talk about how my early life contributed to my development as a scholar. This is necessarily speculative, since I have no evidence of what would have happened if my early life had been different. However, my impression is that my development as a scholar built on using my brain on…

I was born in Paris in 1958 and lived the first twenty years of my life in the 13th and 14th arrondissements. My late mother, Yvonne, was first a schoolteacher and then stayed at home to take care of her three children: myself, my sister Françoise, and my brother Jean-Marie. My mother suffered from diabetes…

I was born in Chicago in 1953. My maternal grandparents were Catholic. My grandmother, Ethel Elizabeth Houlehan Gunkel, was of Irish descent. She was a strong woman who lived to 100 and was lots of fun. My grandfather, Frederick Peter Gunkel, was of Austrian and German descent. He was the executive hog buyer for Oscar…

Early Life Iwas born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1943. My earliest memory is my father Victor John Brus coming home from World War II in 1946. He was an officer in charge of communications on a large US Navy troop transport and assault ship in the western Pacific and was returning home after an absence…

The Economist as Detective Ihave always wanted to be a detective. As a young child in New York City, I was determined to uncover the secrets of the mummies at the Museum of Natural History. I grew up in the Parkchester section of the Bronx, New York with my parents and older sister, Judy. I…

Born in London, England in 1951 to Leonard George and Elsie Cressy Houghton, he was raised in a working-class family along with elder brother Graham. Educated at an excellent government primary school (Lyndhurst Grove) until the age of 11, he then won a scholarship to Alleyn’s School in Dulwich, London, founded by Edward Alleyn, a…

Iwas born on August 25, 1952 in Sacramento, California to Roberta Helen Rice and Charles Moen Rice Jr. (Fig. 1). My mother originated in Colorado Springs, Colorado, my father from Worcester, Massachusetts. I was the third Charles Moen Rice; we were all only children. I never met my paternal grandparents who were long gone by…

Iwas born in Bad Homburg, near Frankfurt, Germany in 1952. My parents and I lived in an apartment right above the physics laboratories of the University, where my father was an instructor. I also started elementary school there. In 1960 my parents moved to southwestern Germany, to the idyllic Black Forest town of Freiburg, bordering…

I never had no Nobel dreams Iwas born in 1935, a pivotal year in American history, although it is possible that my birth had nothing to do with these historical events. In 1935, the US was emerging from the Great Depression and the election of Franklin Roosevelt in 1932 instilled hope for a new deal.…