My grandfather on my mother's side was a professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; my other grandfather was a lawyer, and one time Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives.

My father was on the faculty in the Chemistry Department of Harvard University; my mother had one year of graduate work in physics before her marriage.

My graduate studies were carried out at the California Institute of Technology.

The Nobel award occasions a unique celebration of the vision of science by the public at large. The prestige the prize confers today is largely due to the extraordinary diligence of the Nobel committees.

The hardest problems of pure and applied science can only be solved by the open collaboration of the world-wide scientific community.

One other hobby of mine has been playing the oboe but I have not kept this up after 1969.

Life is to be lived through action not by dreaming.