Nobel Prize

François Jacob was born in June 1920 in Nancy (France). He was the only son of Simon Jacob and Thérèse Franck. After attending the Lycée Carnot in Paris, he began studying medicine at the Faculty of Paris, with the intention of becoming a surgeon. These studies were interrupted by the war. In June 1940, when…

Sir Robert Robinson was born at Rufford, near Chesterfield, Derbyshire on September 13th, 1886, the son of William Bradbury Robinson, a surgical dressing manufacturer who invented his own machines for the production of lint, bandages, etc., and the cardboard boxes for packaging them. He was educated at the Chesterfield Grammar School, Fulneck School, near Leeds,…

I was born in New York City on February 14, 1917, the oldest child of Israel Hauptman and Leah Rosenfeld. I have two brothers, Manuel and Robert. I married Edith Citrynell on November 10, 1940. We have two daughters, Barbara (1947) and Carol (1950). My interest in most areas of science and mathematics began at…

Walther Hermann Nernst was born in Briesen, West Prussia, on June 25, 1864. His father, Gustav Nernst, was a district judge. He spent his early school years at Graudentz, and subsequently went to the Universities of Zurich, Berlin and Graz (Ludwig Boltzmann and Albert von Ettinghausen), studying physics and mathematics, before proceeding to Wurzburg (Friedrich…

The beginning is distant, and was a time when we as a people were without much of the fruits of science that now refine our lives. But it was also a good time, when family and town were the domain of our existence. My father of Scottish, and mother of German extraction, migrated with their…

Ttranslation from the German text Born in Berlin in 1897. Doctorate and University Teaching Thesis in Marburg/Lahn from the Faculty of Chemistry. Head of Department at Braunschweig (Technical College) from 1932; Associate Professor at Freiburg/Brsg. from 1937; Professor and Faculty Director at the Institute of Chemistry, Tübingen, from 1944; turned down the same position as…

Francis William Aston was born in September 1877 at Harborne, Birmingham, England, the third of a family of seven children. He was educated at Harborne Vicarage School and Malvern College where his interest in science was aroused. In 1894 he entered Mason College, Birmingham (later to become the University of Birmingham) where he studied chemistry…

I was born in Pusan, Korea, on October 3, 1904. My father Brede Pedersen, was a Norwegian marine engineer who left home as a young man and shipped out as an engineer on a steam freighter to the Far East. He eventually arrived in Korea and joined the fleet of the Korean customs service, which…

I was born on September 30, 1943 in Zusamaltheim, Bavaria, now Federal Republic of Germany, as the first son of Thekla and Johann Deisenhofer. After my father’s return from military service my parents ran the family farm. In 1948, our family grew to its final size with the birth of my only sister, Antonie. My…

John Charles Polanyi was born in 1929 in Berlin, Germany, of Hungarian parents, Michael and Magda Elizabeth Polanyi. The family moved to England in 1933 where he received his education. His University training was at Manchester University, where he obtained his B.Sc. in 1949, and his Ph.D. in 1952. From 1952-1954, he was a Postdoctoral…