John D. Macdougall begins the interview with a summary of his graduate and doctoral work. In 1966 Macdougall began working at Sprague Electric Company in the research and development department with ion implementation.…

Michael J. Overduin was born in Ontario, Canada, the second oldest of five children. Overduin's father received master's degrees in English and music and was a teacher who traveled around Ontario to develop new programs…

Kevan M. Shokat was born in Boulder City, Nevada, but raised (mostly) in the San Francisco Bay Area in Albany, California (except for a year in Iran), the older—by twelve years—of two brothers. His parents were both…

Douglas R. Kellogg grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, the second oldest of four children. He had an early interest in reading, and took classes with several influential teachers. Kellogg first chose the University of…

William S. Talbot grew up in Gainesville, Florida, enjoying nature, playing outside, and playing sports (for a time, an offensive guard and a nose tackle in football). His father was an oral surgeon who did a stint in…

Sherry Bartolucci begins the interview session with a description of her secondary school experience and her strong personal motivation to excel. She describes her early introduction to business management at AT&T and…

Masao Horiba begins the interview by discussing his childhood experiences in Japan during the 1920s and 1930s. Horiba suffered from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and spent much of his childhood listening to music, and…

Monica L. Vetter grew up in Markham, Ontario, Canada, the eldest of three siblings. Vetter's father worked for Honeywell and in the computer industry generally—and was gifted musically—and her mother was a nurse who,…

Kenneth E. Manchester was drafted after high school to serve in World War II and later attended San Jose State University. Manchester then completed a Ph.D. in chemistry at Stanford University under the supervision of…

Andrew S. Grove begins the first interview session with a description of his undergraduate life at the City College of New York, where exposure to influential professors shaped his professional outlook and personal…

Earl K. Miller was born and raised in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, one of two siblings—the other being his identical twin. His mother was a homemaker; his father an accountant. As a child, Miller was interested in…

Karel Svoboda was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, though he and his family immigrated to western Germany—the Ruhr Valley—during the Cold War era, in stages: first, his father, then his mother, Svoboda, and one sister,…

Brian D. Dynlacht spent much of his youth in Coral Gables, Florida, one of three children. From his youth Dynlacht was impressed by his father, a man who suffered through the Holocaust as a child and survived through…

William H. Joyce begins his interview with a description of his early childhood. As a young man, Joyce was significantly influenced by both his parents, in particular his father, who instilled in Joyce a strong…

Xi He was born in Wuhan, China during the Cultural Revolution, though he and his family soon moved out of Wuhan into a much more rural area. His father was an associate professor in a medical university—an…

Susan J. Birren spent time in New York and Washington, D.C., though grew up mostly in Kentfield, California, just north of San Francisco, the second youngest of four siblings. Her father was a lawyer, and then an…

Morris Tanenbaum grew up in Huntington, West Virginia, one of three children. His Jewish parents had come from Russia and Poland by way of Buenos Aires, Argentina; they owned a delicatessen, in which Morris worked after…

Charles E. Connor was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, spending the first few years of his life in Parkville, but then moving with his family to Towson, a suburb nestled in a wooded area through which Connor used…

Jay T. Last begins the interview with a description of his family background and youth during the Great Depression and World War II. He reviews his undergraduate education at the University of Rochester and his graduate…

Kuo-Fen Lee was raised in Kaohsing, Taiwan where he (the youngest) and his four siblings helped his single mother run a restaurant. Lee had what he considers a normal childhood; in terms of parental expectations, all…

Lilianna Solnica-Krezel was born in Cieplice-Sląskie, a small village in the mountains in the southwestern part of Poland, but grew up in Sandomierz, Poland, at a time when the country was still under the communist…

James C. A. Bardwell was born and raised in Saskatoon, Canada. He was influenced early on by his family and by his religion, and knew that he had the interest and drive to go into science. Bardwell entered the…

Michael D. Sheets, the oldest of three children, was born in West Lafayette, Indiana, while his father was studying at Purdue University. When Michael was about five, his father moved the family to East Lansing,…

Jeffery D. Molkentin was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the elder of two brothers. Molkentin's mother worked at Briggs & Stratton; his maternal grandfather and his stepfather (from whom he has his surname)…

Kurt Wüthrich begins his interview by discussing the emergence of his interest in chemistry during his high school years, where a highly qualified group of professors taught him. He originally intended to become a…