Physicist

Their educations ended with high school - my father going to work as a clerk and then salesman in a company dealing in printing and stationary, and my mother working as a secretary and then bookkeeper in a firm of wool merchants.

My parents regarded school teachers as higher beings, as did many immigrants.

It was good fortune to be a child during the Depression years and a youth during the war years.

Whatever the course, whether the course was boring or interesting to me, whether I was talented in mathematics or not talented in languages, my parents expected A's.

My parents were determined to move into the middle class.

This was good training for research, because large parts of experimental work are sometimes boring or involve the use of skills in which one is not particularly gifted.

There were two free public libraries within walking distance of my home; I remember taking six books home from every visit, the limit set by the library.

It was good fortune to be a child during the Depression years and a youth during the war years.

About 1900 my parents came to the United States as children from what was then the Polish area of Russia.

I was also interested in chemistry, but my parents were not willing to buy me a chemistry set.

My parents regarded school teachers as higher beings, as did many immigrants.

About 1900 my parents came to the United States as children from what was then the Polish area of Russia.

As Jews, their families left Russia to escape the poverty and the antisemitism.

Natures' curriculum cannot be changed.

Their educations ended with high school - my father going to work as a clerk and then salesman in a company dealing in printing and stationary, and my mother working as a secretary and then bookkeeper in a firm of wool merchants.