When I was 28 years old, I found myself in Schenectady, New York, where I discovered that it was possible for some people to make a good living as physicists.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
In the late '30's when I was in college, physics - and in particular, nuclear physics - was the most exciting field in the world.
When I was a college student at Yale, I was studying physics and mathematics and was absolutely intent on becoming a theoretical physicist.
Soon after my degree, in 1958 I went to the United States to enlarge my experience and to familiarize myself with particle accelerators. I spent about one and a half years at Columbia University.
I found collaborating with congenial doctors about problems that physicists could help solve was very satisfying. I also like educating anybody who would listen!
My brother Carl became a physicist; I became an economist.
Actually, I was more or less determined to be a theoretical physicist at the age of thirteen.
I spent most of my career doing high-energy physics, quarks, dark matter, string theory and so on.
It's not about where you were born or where you come from that makes you a good scientist. What you need are good teachers, co-students, facilities.
I was always very curious about what a scientist's life was like when I was young. Of course, when I was young, you didn't have very many opportunities to find out with no web, TV. I was very lucky: I was born in the city of Chicago and went to the University of Chicago where I actually saw things.
I started out as a physicist; however, I am what I have become. I have evolved, with the help of many colleagues in the international scientific community, into an interdisciplinary scientist.