Albert Eschenmoser begins the interview with a discussion of his early life and education. Born in Switzerland, he attended school in the canton of Uri. At the age of sixteen, he decided that he wanted to become a…

In this interview, Michael Szwarc begins with his early interest in science while growing up in Poland, leading to his studies at the Warsaw Polytechnic Institute. Szwarc next describes his experiences from 1935, when…

Barbara A. Schaal was born in 1947 in Berlin, Germany. In 1950 the family immigrated to the United States where they met her aunt and uncle (her father’s brother) in Chicago, Illinois. As Schaal grew up, she started to…

George A. Olah begins the interview with a description of his family and childhood years in Budapest, Hungary. Olah first developed an interest in chemistry after taking a chemistry course at the Technical University of…

Luis Proenza was born in 1944 in Mexico City, Mexico. When he was growing up, his parents ran a family business. He grew up in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and Acapulco, Mexico. Proenza remembers spending time by the ocean and…

Shirley Mahaley Malcom was born in 1946 in Birmingham, Alabama, which was a segregated city. She grew up in her grandmother’s house with her parents and sister and was surrounded by other family and a strong Black…

Thomas E. Lovejoy III was born in New York City, New York, in 1941. An only child, Lovejoy spent a year-and-a-half on the eastern shore of Maryland out in nature as a young child. His father ran a life insurance…

Norman R. Augustine was born on July 27, 1935, in Denver, Colorado. An only child, he grew up just about on the prairie and loved spending time in the nearby mountains. His father fought in World War I, and Augustine…

Rory Cooper was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1959 and grew up in San Luis Obispo, California. His father was a model maker, in the United States Army Reserve, and later, a professor of biology and agriculture at…

Paul Weisz begins his oral history interview by discussing his family background in Austria-Hungary after World War I period, when his family moved to Berlin. Weisz was educated in the Gymnasium, where he developed an…

Robert Kennedy begins the interview with a discussion of his family and growing up in Pittsburgh and New York. Kennedy initially considered a career in journalism, but his family persuaded him to pursue engineering. He…

In this first of three interviews Herman Mark starts with his study of relatively stable free radicals under the direction of Wilhelm Schlenk, first in Vienna and then in Berlin. After a post doctoral period at the…

In this interview, Herbert Morawetz traces his early life prior to leaving Czechoslovakia on the Nazi invasion and resettling in Canada, where he studied chemical engineering at the University of Toronto. He describes…

Herbert C. Brown studied at Crane Junior College, where he became fascinated by chemistry and its history; when Crane closed down, Brown was among the students invited to work in Nicholas D. Cheronis' Synthetical…

Gilbert Stork begins his interview with a description of his childhood and family background in Paris. Stork and his family moved to the United States in 1939, and he decided to begin his graduate studies in chemistry…

The interview begins as Harold Eugene Thayer recalls his family background and growing up in Rochester, New York, during the early Depression. He remembers the strong influence of his mother and his decision to attend…

John E. Franz begins this interview by discussing his early life in Springfield, Illinois, during the Depression. He then describes his undergraduate work at the University of Illinois and his contacts there with Roger…

Yusuf A. Hannun was born in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, though raised after the age of five in Beirut, Lebanon, the eldest of three siblings. His father was a medical officer in the British Army during the World War II and…

O. A. Battista begins the interview by describing his childhood in Cornwall, Canada, as one of eight siblings born to a poor, uneducated laborer and a housewife. Battista proudly details his family's hard-working nature…

Helen Donis-Keller was born in Madison, Wisconsin, but grew up in Elkhart, Indiana. As a child, she loved art, so she pursued a degree in graphic design and photography at The University of Cincinnati. She spent two…

Richard E. Honig was born in Göttingen, Germany, the eldest of three boys. He attended Robert College, an American college in Istanbul, from which he graduated with a bachelor of science degree in electrical…

Alfred Bader begins this interview with a discussion of his early years in Vienna, including his family background and Gymnasium education. This is followed by additional education in England, living in Canada as a…

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…

Allan S. Hay begins the interview with a description of his secondary and undergraduate education in Alberta. After briefly describing his graduate work at the University of Illinois and a summer job at Du Pont, he…

Gerald Weissmann was born in Austria, but when young, he and his family fled the Nazis, eventually ending up in New York City. After earning a bachelor's degree in fine arts from Columbia College, Weissmann, entered…