Chapter 7: Graduate School

In considering graduate school during my last year at Harvard, I had decided that I wanted to go to the west coast because I was interested in seeing other parts of the United States. This would offer me the opportunity to visit natural wonders such as the Grand Canyon and Yosemite National Park. I applied to the Chemistry Department of the University of California at Berkeley and to the Biology Department of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Accepted at both, I found it difficult to choose between them. Providentially, I visited my brother Bob in the spring of 1950 at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Princeton, New Jersey. He was working there as a postdoctoral fellow with J. R. Oppenheimer. Bob, who was always looking out for me and my future, introduced me to Oppenheimer. Einstein happened to walk by while Bob was showing me around and he introduced me to Einstein as well. Given Einstein’s fame, I am not sure I would have been able to think of something to say after we were introduced. Fortunately, he immediately inquired about my interests, to which I replied that I hoped to study biology from a chemist’s viewpoint. He gave me a warm smile, said, “That’s good,” with a German accent, and shook my hand. I remember Einstein as a large man, mainly because of his big halo of white hair, though actually he was not that tall…