I was born in Paris in 1958 and lived the first twenty years of my life in the 13th and 14th arrondissements. My late mother, Yvonne, was first a schoolteacher and then stayed at home to take care of her three children: myself, my sister Françoise, and my brother Jean-Marie. My mother suffered from diabetes…

I was born in Chicago in 1953. My maternal grandparents were Catholic. My grandmother, Ethel Elizabeth Houlehan Gunkel, was of Irish descent. She was a strong woman who lived to 100 and was lots of fun. My grandfather, Frederick Peter Gunkel, was of Austrian and German descent. He was the executive hog buyer for Oscar…

Early Life Iwas born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1943. My earliest memory is my father Victor John Brus coming home from World War II in 1946. He was an officer in charge of communications on a large US Navy troop transport and assault ship in the western Pacific and was returning home after an absence…

The Economist as Detective Ihave always wanted to be a detective. As a young child in New York City, I was determined to uncover the secrets of the mummies at the Museum of Natural History. I grew up in the Parkchester section of the Bronx, New York with my parents and older sister, Judy. I…

Born in London, England in 1951 to Leonard George and Elsie Cressy Houghton, he was raised in a working-class family along with elder brother Graham. Educated at an excellent government primary school (Lyndhurst Grove) until the age of 11, he then won a scholarship to Alleyn’s School in Dulwich, London, founded by Edward Alleyn, a…

Iwas born on August 25, 1952 in Sacramento, California to Roberta Helen Rice and Charles Moen Rice Jr. (Fig. 1). My mother originated in Colorado Springs, Colorado, my father from Worcester, Massachusetts. I was the third Charles Moen Rice; we were all only children. I never met my paternal grandparents who were long gone by…

Iwas born in Bad Homburg, near Frankfurt, Germany in 1952. My parents and I lived in an apartment right above the physics laboratories of the University, where my father was an instructor. I also started elementary school there. In 1960 my parents moved to southwestern Germany, to the idyllic Black Forest town of Freiburg, bordering…

I never had no Nobel dreams Iwas born in 1935, a pivotal year in American history, although it is possible that my birth had nothing to do with these historical events. In 1935, the US was emerging from the Great Depression and the election of Franklin Roosevelt in 1932 instilled hope for a new deal.…

Iwas born on February 19, 1964 in Washington, D.C., the oldest of three sisters. My father Martin K. Doudna was a speechwriter for the Department of Defense at the time and my mother Dorothy taught in community college. My family, including my siblings Ellen and Sarah, moved to Ann Arbor where my father pursued a…

Roger Penrose was born on August 8th, 1931 in Colchester, Essex, England. His father Lionel Sharples Penrose FRS was a distinguished medically trained scientist, who worked primarily on human genetics, studying mainly the genetic origins of numerous mental conditions, particularly the issue of Downs Syndrome. He had earlier, in around 1920, studied psychoanalysis, travelling to…