ABSTRACT
J.S.: Several of the faculty members represented in this project were initially more attracted to another science, most commonly to physics. I read that you were fascinated with chemistry as a boy. What was your early school experience like? B.K.: Well, I went to Stuyvesant High School [in New York City] during the war, and I essentially did very little school work. I spent my time either shooting pool or doing chemical experiments in the basement of my home, where I had a very well-stocked laboratory. I would normally stay up until 2 o’clock in the morning and wake up-or rather my mother woke me up-at 6 o’clock to take a combination bus/subway from Brooklyn to high school. Stuyvesant was on 15th Street between First and Second Avenues in Manhattan, and it took about an hour to get there from Borough Park. My household consisted of my mother, an ailing father for whom I and everyone I knew had tremendous respect, and two older sisters. My older brother was already a medical doctor, and the husband of one sister and the fi ancé of my other sister were in the armed forces. At that time I had the reputation in the family, unlike that of my brother, of being a rather wild and undisciplined kid.
