Chemistry Nobel Laureates - 1980 (I)

Nurturing curiosity and the instinct to seek solutions are perhaps the most important contributions education can make.

Paul Berg
Nobel Laureate, Chemistry, 1980

Courtesy: Stanford University, USA

During his high school, Prof. Paul was fortunate to meet, Sophie Wolfe, a stockroom supervisor for supplies in Chemistry, Physics and Biology classes. Please note that she was not a teacher. She wanted to become a scientist and her love for young people led her to start after-school science clubs. She, instead of answering the questions, encouraged students to find the answers themselves. Such answer-finding exercises often turned into small research projects for students which involved small-scale experimentation in her personal laboratory which she maintained and/or visiting library. Prof. Paul shared in his Nobel introduction webpage - during that period the satisfaction he derived from experimentally solving a problem was "a heady experience for him, almost addicting".