In 1960, I enrolled in the chemical engineering program at UNAM, as this was then the closest way to become a physical chemist, taking math-oriented courses not available to chemistry majors.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
During my McGill years, I took a number of math courses, more than other students in chemistry.
In teaching, I wanted to offer a general pharmacology course based on chemical principles, biochemical classification and mathematical modelling. In the event I achieved neither of my ambitions.
The first education to be a good chemist is to do well in high school science courses. Then, you go to college to really become a chemist. You want to take science and math. Those are the main things.
I was quite nerdy at school. I skipped a year and won a scholarship in chemistry.
I was not proficient in Latin and so was not able to go to Oxford or Cambridge. However, I did enter the first-rate chemistry honours program at the University of Manchester in 1950, where the professors were E.R.H. Jones and M.G. Evans, and graduated in 1953, with the financial support of a Blackpool Education Committee Scholarship.
At school I briefly wanted to be a palaeontologist, but I was no good at chemistry and physics.
In 1960, I went to St. Catherine's College, Oxford, and received the B.A. degree in Chemistry in 1964.
In 1960, I earned my Chemistry Degree from Cornell University.
I abandoned chemistry to concentrate on mathematics and physics. In 1942, I travelled to Cambridge to take the scholarship examination at Trinity College, received an award and entered the university in October 1943.
At Harvard I majored in chemistry with a strong inclination toward math.