People
LOTTE BAILYN | EUGENE BRAUNWALD | HANNA ENGELBERG-KULKA |
| Social Psychologist, MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts | Cardiologist, Harvard Medical School, Boston | Molecular Biologist, Hebrew University of Jerusalem |
“I think the Austrians didn’t want the exiles back […], for a long time they didn’t accept any responsibility for any of this. […] But then they began to make invites." Lotte Bailyn, born 1930 in Vienna, T. Wilson Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Emerita; pathbreaking researcher on work-family balance in industry and academia, with a special focus on gender equality; was brought to New York in 1937 by her father, the social researcher Paul Lazarsfeld, after her mother, the social researcher Marie Jahoda, was imprisoned by the Austro-fascist regime; studied at Harvard University; from 1958 Research Associate and Lecturer at Harvard University, from 1969 Research Associate and Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, from 1972 Associate Professor, from 1980 Professor, and from 1991 the T. Wilson Professor of Management, Chair of the MIT Faculty (1997–99); numerous honors and awards including Matina S. Horner Distinguished Visiting Professor at Radcliffe's Public Policy Institute (1995–97), Fellow of the American Psychological Association, Charter Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, Honorary Doctorate from the University of Piraeus (Greece) and Doctor of Humane Letters, Swarthmore College. | “Why I have enjoyed research so much, and why I currently enjoy it so much, is the thrill of the chase. And then, every once in a while, the joy of discovery." Eugene Braunwald, born 1929 in Vienna, Distinguished Hersey Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Founding Chair of the TIMI Study Group at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital; one of the leading cardiologists of our time as the most frequently cited author in cardiology; fled from Vienna with his family as a 8-year-old in July 1938; studied at New York University School of Medicine and at Johns Hopkins University; from 1955 various appointments at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, lastly Clinical Director, from 1968 Professor and Founding Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, from 1972 Hersey Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine, Harvard Medical School at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, from 1996 Distinguished Hersey Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School; numerous honors and awards including the Distinguished Scientist and Lifetime Achievement Award of the American College of Cardiology, the James B. Herrick Award of the American Heart Association, and the Gold Medal of the European Society of Cardiology, Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and member of other learned societies, Honorary Doctorates from 24 universities on three continents, including the University of Vienna (1995). | “When I finished studying […] the professor said – women are not for science […]. Now there are many more women. […] I think it is because of me that there are many women in our faculty.” Hanna Engelberg-Kulka, born 1932 in Vienna, Etta Rosensohn Chair of Bacteriology at IMRIC and Professor at the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School, Emerita; discovered bacterial programmed cell death; fled from Vienna with her family as an 8-year-old in late 1938; studied at the Hebrew University; from 1968 Lecturer, from 1972 Senior Lecturer, from 1978 Associate Professor at the Institute of Microbiology, the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School, Eleanor Roosevelt Fellowship of the International Union Against Cancer in the Department of Molecular Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York (1972–73), from 1985 Professor and Chairperson (1994–2000) at the Department of Molecular Biology, the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School; honors and awards including the Ulitzky Prize of the Israel Society of Microbiology, the ILANIT-Ephraim Katzir Prize, and the EMET Prize for Science, Art and Culture, Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, Honorary Doctorate from the University of Vienna (2015). |
GERALD HOLTON | ERIC KANDEL | MARTIN KARPLUS |
| Physicist and Historian of Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts | Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, Columbia University, New York City | Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts |
“We looked into ‘Who’s Who’ […] and the [refugee] boys and girls […] were more likely to get into ‘Who’s Who’ compared to the American-born ones, fifteen times more likely!” Gerald Holton, born 1922 in Berlin, Mallinckrodt Research Professor of Physics and Research Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University, Emeritus; pioneered the history of physics especially with his work on Einstein and relativity, author of What Happened to the Children who fled Nazi Persecution (with Gerhard Sonnert, 2006); fled from Vienna on a Kindertransport as a 16-year-old in December 1938; studied at Wesleyan University and at Harvard University; from 1947 various faculty ranks at Harvard University, from 1976 to 1982 concurrently Visiting Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, President of the History of Science Society (1983–84) and of several U.S. National Commissions; numerous honors and awards including the Sarton Medal of the History of Science Society, the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, First Class (2008), National Associate of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Life Honorary Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences, Member of the Leopoldina and further learned societies in Europe, Honorary Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (2016). | “The model of the Holocaust is ‘never forget.’ It’s not an accident that I’m working on these problems. It’s almost, you know, a given in some ways.” Eric Kandel, born 1929 in Vienna, University Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics and Kavli Professor of Brain Science at Columbia University; awarded Nobel Prize in 2000 for “discoveries concerning signal transduction in the nervous system”; fled from Vienna with his brother as a 9-year-old in April 1939, his parents followed; studied at Harvard University and New York University School of Medicine; academic appointments at Harvard Medical School and New York University; from 1974 Professor at Columbia University and Founding Director of the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior (now Department of Neuroscience); Senior Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Director of the Kavli Institute for Brain Science and Co-Director of the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute at Columbia University; numerous honors and awards including the U.S. National Medal of Science, the Order Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts, the Austrian Decoration of Honor for Science and Art (2005), Honorary Citizenship of the City of Vienna (2009), and the Grand Decoration of Honor in Silver with Star for Services to the Republic of Austria (2012); 22 honorary degrees including Honorary Doctorates from the University of Vienna (1994) and the Medical University of Vienna (2018); Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Fellow of the Royal Society, Member of the Académie des sciences, Member of the Leopoldina and other learned societies; Honorary Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (2002). | “Why do you do science? You want to learn something that nobody else has known before. And it may be an important thing, or it may be sort of a small thing […] that is what I really find exciting.” Martin Karplus, born 1930 in Vienna, Theodore William Richards Professor of Chemistry at Harvard University, Emeritus; awarded Nobel Prize in 2013 “for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems”; fled from Vienna with his family as an 8-year-old in March 1938 a few days after the “Anschluss”; studied at Harvard University and at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech); from 1953 postdoc-Fellow at Oxford University, from 1955 member of the University of Illinois Faculty, Urbana-Champaign; from 1960 Professor at Columbia University; from 1966 Professor, from 1979 the Theodore William Richards Professor of Chemistry at Harvard University, from 1996 also Professor Conventionné at the Université Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg; numerous honors and awards including the Irving Langmuir Award, the Linus Pauling Award, Commander of the Légion d’honneur, the Austrian Decoration of Honor for Science and Art (2015), and Honorary Citizenship of the City of Vienna (2015), honorary degrees including an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Vienna (2015), Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Fellow of the Royal Society and Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences; Honorary Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (2015). |
HERBERT C. KELMAN | RUTH KLÜGER | WALTER KOHN |
| Social Psychologist and Conflict Researcher, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts | Literary Scholar and Writer, University of California, Irvine | Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara |
"There is the famous post Holocauststatement of ‘never again.’ And, you know, some people have interpreted that as ‘never again’ can Jews allow that to happen to them. I’ve always interpreted it as ‘never again’ can that be done to any people." Herbert C. Kelman, born 1927 in Vienna, Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard University, Emeritus; pioneered conflict research and made important contributions to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process; fled from Vienna with his family as a 12-year-old in March 1939; studied at Yale and at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; from 1947 Research Assistant at Yale; from 1952 Research Assistant at Johns Hopkins University, from 1962 Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan, from 1968 Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard University; numerous honors and awards including the Socio-Psychological Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Kurt Lewin Memorial Award, the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order, honorary degrees including an Honorary Doctorate from the Universidad Complutense, Madrid, the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, First Class (1998), the Gold Medal of Honor of the Federal Capital of Vienna (2012), and the Grand Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria (2016). | "Because in fact, for years I really wanted to forget German, but I didn’t manage to. And finally I thought to myself, actually, why? It’s my legacy and after all, you don’t throw away Ruth Klüger, born 1931 in Vienna, Professor of German Studies at the University of California, Irvine, Emerita and author of the bestseller Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered (2001, first published as weiter leben: Eine Jugend, 1992); deported together with her mother to the Theresienstadt camp as a 10-year-old in 1942 and later to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp; survived the Holocaust in a Nazi forced labor camp; emigrated to the U.S. in 1947; studied at the University of California, Berkeley; from 1976 Professor of German Studies at the University of California, Irvine, from 1980 to 1986 Professor at Princeton University before returning to UC Irvine, from 1988 Visiting Professor at the University of Göttingen, guest professorships in Vienna and Tübingen, longtime editor of German Quarterly; numerous honors and awards including the Austrian State Award for Literary Criticism (1997), the Paul Watzlawick-Ring of Honor (2015), the Federal Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, First Class, and the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, First Class (2011), Member of the German Academy for Language and Literature, Darmstadt, Honorary Doctorates from the University of Göttingen and the University of Vienna (2015). | "I was thrown out of the Akademisches Gymnasium: well, you’re still a pupil here now but tomorrow you won’t be any more." Walter Kohn, born 1923 in Vienna, most recently Professor of Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Emeritus; awarded Nobel Prize in 1998 for the “development of the density-functional theory”; fled from Vienna one of the last Kindertransporte as a 16-year-old in August 1939, his parents Gittel and Salomon Kohn were murdered in the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, 1940 transferred as an “enemy alien” from the U.K. to a Canadian internment camp; studied at the University of Toronto and Harvard University; from 1950 taught at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University), from 1960 Professor of Physics at University of California, San Diego, from 1979 Professor of Physics at University of California, Santa Barbara and Founding Director of its Institute for Theoretical Physics; numerous honors and awards including the U.S. National Medal of Science, the Austrian Decoration of Honor for Science and Art (1999), and the Grand Decoration of Honor in Silver with Star for Services to the Republic of Austria (2008), honorary degrees including Honorary Doctorates from Harvard University, the University of Oxford, the Technical University of Vienna (1996), and the University of Vienna (2012), Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and other learned societies, Honorary Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (2011). Walter Kohn passed away in Santa Barbara in 2016. |
GEORGE MANDLER | WALTER MISCHEL | WALTER MUNK |
| Cognitive Psychologist, University of California, San Diego | Personality Psychologist, Columbia University, New York City | Oceanographer at Scripps Institution, University of California, San Diego |
“I grew up with nine girl cousins and one boy cousin. Somehow girls were rampant in our family. And of those nine, six were killed. So, I really felt the impact of the camps." George Mandler, born 1924 in Vienna, most recently Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, San Diego, Emeritus; forerunner of the cognitive revolution in psychology; fled from Vienna as a 14-year-old in October 1938; studied at New York University and Yale University; from 1953 Lecturer, Research Assistant and Assistant Professor at Harvard University, from 1960 Associate Professor, later Professor at the University of Toronto, from 1965 Professor at University of California, San Diego, Chair of the Department of Psychology and Founding Director of the Center for Human Information Processing (CHIP) at University of California, San Diego, from 1994 Visiting Professor at University College London, Founding President of the Federation of Behavioral, Psychological, and Cognitive Sciences; numerous honors and awards including Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Honorary Member of the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London, Honorary Doctorate from the University of Vienna (2009). George Mandler passed away in London in 2016. | “We shared a burning goal […]. I am sure each of us phrased it differently, whether it’s, you know, justice or getting even […], and I think a burning goal is absolutely essential for cognitive skills to be mastered und utilized." Walter Mischel, born 1930 in Vienna, most recently Robert Johnston Niven Professor of Humane Letters at Columbia University, Emeritus; author of the international bestseller The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control (2014); ranked as the 25th most cited psychologist of the 20th century; fled from Vienna with his family as an 8-year-old in September 1938; studied at New York University, the City College of New York and The Ohio State University; from 1956 Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado and at Harvard University, from 1962 Associate Professor, from 1966 Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, from 1983 Professor of Psychology at Columbia University, President of the Association for Psychological Science (2008–09), from 1994 to 2017 Robert Johnston Niven Professor of Humane Letters at Columbia University; numerous honors and awards including the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, American Psychological Association, the Grawemeyer Award in Psychology, and the Ludwig Wittgenstein Prize of the Austrian Research Foundation (2012), Honorary Doctorates from The Ohio State University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Walter Mischel passed away in New York City in 2018.
| “I think it’s very important not to be afraid of experiments well done even if they should fail. Sometimes the failure of an experiment will give you an answer, can be very rewarding, can tell you an awful lot.” Walter Munk, born 1917 in Vienna, most recently Professor of Geophysics at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, Emeritus; pioneered oceanography and is considered to be the “Einstein of the oceans”, with Harald Sverdrup, director of Scripps Institution, he developed methods to predict surf conditions for the Allied landings in North Africa, the Pacific theater of war and the beaches of Normandy; sent to school in New York State as a 14-year-old in 1932; after the “Anschluss” in 1938 his parents fled from Vienna to the U.S.; studied at Columbia University, the California Institute of Technology, and at Scripps Institution; from 1947 Assistant Professor of Geophysics at Scripps Institution, from 1949 Associate Professor and from 1954 Professor of Geophysics at Scripps Institution; numerous honors and awards including the Alexander Agassiz Medal of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Crafoord Prize for Geosciences of the Royal Swedish Academy, the U.S. National Medal of Science, the Kyoto Prize, the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, First Class (2010), and the Grand Decoration of Honor in Silver for Services to the Republic of Austria (2019), Honorary Doctorates from the University of Bergen, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Crete, Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Fellow of the Royal Society, Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Member of the Leopoldina and other learned societies. Walter Munk passed away in La Jolla, California, in 2019. |
GUSTAV F. PAPANEK | MARJORIE G. PERLOFF | PETER PULZER |
| Developing Economist, Boston University, Massachusetts | Literary Scholar and Critic, Stanford University, California | Historian, Oxford University |
“I believe that my greatest contribution of all was to insist in Indonesia and Pakistan that we need to look at problems that aren’t the problems of yesterday or the problems of today, but the problems of tomorrow.” Gustav F. Papanek, born 1926 in Vienna, Professor of Economics at Boston University, Emeritus and President of the Boston Institute for Developing Economies (BIDE); is considered to be one of the most outstanding development economists of our time and has advised governments in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America and the World Bank; fled from Vienna with his family as a 12-year-old in July 1938, farm laborer, domestic servant and store clerk (1942–44); studied at Cornell University and Harvard University; from 1951 to 1953 Deputy Chief of Program Planning for South & Southeast Asia at the Technical Cooperation Administration, U.S. Department of State, fired by the U.S. government for “socialistic tendencies” during the McCarthy period, from 1953 member of faculty of various divisions within Harvard University, and later Director of the Harvard Development Advisory Service (now Harvard Institute for International Development), from 1974 Professor at the Department of Economics, Boston University, from 1983 Professor of Economics and Director, Center for Asian Development Studies, Boston University; numerous honors including Member of the Society for International Development and of the American Economic Association, and President of the Association for Comparative Economic Studies (1982). | “I think my greatest pleasure as a critic has been to find the winners, frankly. […] Frank O’Hara, when I wrote the book on him in ‘77 […] was completely unknown. And now people would say – ‘oh, obviously one of the great poets of the period,’ and that makes you feel wow." Marjorie G. Perloff (Gabriele Schüller Mintz), born 1931 in Vienna, Sadie Dernham Patek Professor of Humanities, Emerita; paved the way for comparative research on experimental and avantgarde poetry in the U.S.; fled from Vienna with her parents, renowned economist Ilse Schüller Mintz and lawyer Max Mintz, as a 6-year-old on 12 March 1938; studied at Oberlin College, Ohio, Barnard College, New York City, and the Catholic University of America, Washington, DC; from 1966 Assistant and Associate Professor of English at the Catholic University, from 1971 Associate and Full Professor of English at the University of Maryland, College Park, from 1976 Florence R. Scott Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, from 1986 Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Stanford University, from 1990 Sadie Dernham Patek Professor of Humanities; numerous honors and awards including Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Member of the American Philosophical Society, President of the American Comparative Literature Association (1993–95), President of the Modern Language Association (2006), honorary degrees including an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Innsbruck (2016).
| “Some of my fellow students regarded me as a great expert on the Third Reich […] and asked me questions to which I really didn’t know the answers […]. But then I became quite good at inventing answers. That was a great help to me when I became an academic […].” Peter Pulzer, born 1929 in Vienna, Gladstone Professor of Government and Public Administration and Fellow of All Souls College, University of Oxford, Emeritus and author of The Rise of Political anti-Semitism in Germany and Austria (1964/1988, in German: Die Entstehung des politischen Antisemitismus in Deutschland und Österreich 1867–1914, 1966/2004) and a pioneer in research on anti-Semitism; fled from Vienna with his family as a 9-year-old in February 1939; studied at the University of Cambridge; from 1957 Lecturer at the University of Oxford, from 1962 Tutor at the University of Oxford and Fellow of Christ Church College, from 1985 Gladstone Professor of Government and Public Administration and Fellow at All Souls College, Chairman, Leo Baeck Institute, London (1997–2013); numerous honors and awards including Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the Federal Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Grand Decoration of Honor in Silver for Services to the Republic of Austria (2008); Honorary Doctorates from the University of Innsbruck (2007) and the University of Vienna (2012). |
EGON SCHWARZ | ||
| Literary Scholar and Critic, Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri | ||
“So, I would say that Hitler was good for me, not for the rest of the world […], because here in Austria I wouldn’t have become anything special, and in the USA I also didn’t become anything special […]. But within the university I did acquire a certain prestige.” Egon Schwarz, born 1922 in Vienna, most recently Rosa May Distinguished University Professor in the Humanities, Washington University in St. Louis, Emeritus and author of Wien und die Juden. Essays zum Fin de siècle (2014); regarded as one of the world’s leading scholars in German Studies and the first and most important mediator of Austrian literature in the U.S.; fled from Vienna with his parents as a 16-year-old in 1938, some months after the “Anschluss”, migrant worker in Latin America; from 1948 studied at the Colegio Benigno Malo in Cuenca, Ecuador, The Ohio State University, and the University of Washington, Seattle; from 1949 Instructor at Otterbein College, Westerville, Ohio and at the University of Washington, Seattle, from 1954 Instructor and Assistant Professor at Harvard University, from 1961 Associate Professor, from 1963 Full Professor, and from 1975 Rosa May Distinguished University Professor in the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis; numerous honors and awards including the Joseph von Eichendorff Medal of the Eichendorff Society, the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, First Class (1990), and the Grand Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria (2007), Member of the German Academy for Language and Literature, Darmstadt, Honorary Doctorates from the University of Örebro, Sweden, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of Vienna (1997). Egon Schwarz passed away in St. Louis in 2017. | ||