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“It was the 7th grade of Polish primary school when chemistry appeared on the program. I was fascinated by simple but imaginative and colorful experiments, the laboratory glassware and tools. It was like magic! To continue my fascination, in secondary school I chose a class with an extended program of chemistry—but it came at the same time with extended biology. There I discovered that the two went hand in hand and my interest in molecular biology was born, determining my future career choices.”

“My most formative year was probably 8th grade, when I began scanning my older brother's college chemistry textbooks for clues to make rockets and explosives and obtained my first glimpse of how the physical world worked. This evolved into a serious interest in chemistry, which later initiated my interest in many areas of science. Socially, I remember taking the noon dance classes offered at our school. I thought that it was pretty nice that there were 10 girls to every boy. I needed those kinds of odds and hoped that my newly acquired dancing skills might impress a certain girl. They didn't.”

“After graduating college I was unable to decide whether to go to graduate school, as the prospect of spending my life in the proverbial ‘Ivory Tower' was troubling. To help gain some perspective, I took a year off and worked as a secretary for a lingerie company on Fifth Avenue. Riding the subway from the Bronx to Manhattan every day helped convince me that being cloistered in the Ivory Tower of academia might be preferable! I have never regretted that decision.”

“It wasn't the grade as much as the national exam that everyone in the UK had to take at 11 years of age. It was called the Eleven Plus exam and was later found to be based on faked data. It was supposed to determine whether you were qualified to attend a grammar school or what was called a Secondary Modern school, designed basically to keep kids off the streets until they were 15 years old and could leave and get a job. I passed the exam. If I had failed, I would probably by now be spending my time with other geezers in the pub playing dominoes and wondering what I might have been if I'd passed.”