Bob Weintraub. bobweintraub@gmail.com
Home page http://sites.google.com/site/bobweintraub/
A list of biographies and autobiographies of Jews in chemistry, biochemistry, and related areas. Included are works about Jews who studied or worked in chemistry but are primarily remembered for their work in other fields. For biographies where the name of the chemist being discussed is not obvious from the title, the name is given in parenthesis. The list is alphabetic by the name of the chemist. English language monographs only are listed.
Books about Jewish chemists:
A
Agosin, M. (1998) Always from Somewhere Else. Feminist Press of the City University of New York. (Moises Agosin)
Abragam, A. (1986) Reflections of a Physicist. Clarendon, Oxford.
Abragam, A. (1989) Time Reversal. Clarendon, Oxford.
Anders, E. (2010) Amidst Latvians During the Holocaust, Occupation Museum Association of Latvia.
Davis, J. S., ed., (1948) Carl Alsberg. Standford University Press
Asimov, I. (1994) A Memoir. Doubleday, New York.
Freedman, C. (2005) Conversations with Isaac Asimov. University of Mississippi.
Asimov, I. (1979) In Memory Yet Green. Doubleday, New York.
Asimov, I. (1980) In Joy Still Felt. Avon, New York.
Asimov, J. J. (ed). (2002) It's Been a Good Life/ Isaac Asimov. Prometheus Books, Amherst, New York.
Auerbacher, I. (1995) Beyond the Yellow Star to America. Royal Fireworks Press, Unionville, New York.
B
Bader, A. (1995) Adventures of a Chemist Collector. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London.
Bader, A. (2010) Chemistry and Art. Further Adventures of a Chemist Collector. Orion.
Barclay, H. (2008) Run Henry Run. MakorJewish Community Library.
Barres, B. (2018) The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist. MIT Press.
Freidberg, E.C. (2014) A Biography of Paul Berg: The Recombinant DNA Controversy Revisited
Jensen, W.B., Fenichel, H. and Orchin, M. (2011) Scientist in the Service of Israel. (Ernst David Bergmann)
Breuer, Miklos (2008) My 20th Century K&J Press Boston
Brown, A. (2005) J. D. Bernal: The Sage of Science. Oxford.
Goldsmith, M. (1980) Sage, A Life of JD Bernal. Hutchinson, London.
Swann, B and Aprahamian, F. (1999) J.D. Bernal: A Life in Science and Politics. Verso, London.
Crotty, S. (2001) Ahead of the Curve. UCB, Berkeley. (David Baltimore)
Bamberger, C. (1996) Breaking the Mold. privately printed.
Holmes, F. L. (2006) Reconceiving the Gene.Yale Univ Press. (Seymour Benzer)
Weiner, J. (1999) Time, Love, Memory. Knopf, New York. (Seymour Benzer)
Berg, Raissa L. (1988) Acquired Traits. Viking, Syd Vallentine, London.
Peat, F. D. (1997) Infinite Potential. Addison Wesley, Reading, Mass. (David Bohm).
Brenner, S. (2001) My Life in Science. Biomed Central, London, 2001.
Bulkin, B. (2019) Solving Chemistry. Amazon Digital. 2019.
Bulkin, B. (2015) Crash Course. Amazon Digital. 2015.
Friedberg, E.C. (2010)
Friedberg, E.C. (2010) Sydney Brenner: A Biography. Cold Spring Harbor.
C
Calvin, M. (1992) Following the Trail of Light. American Chemical Society, Washington.
Miller, F. P. et al. (2010) Melvin Calvin. VDM Publishing.
Canetti, E. (1999) The Memoirs of Elias Canetti. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York.
Cantoni, G. L. (2000) From Milano to New York by Way of Hell. iUniverse, Lincoln, Nebraska.
Reinhardt, C. and Travis, A. S. (2000) Heinrich Caro and the Creation of Modern Chemical Industry. Kluwer, Dordrecht.
Civin , M. P. (2009) Memories, Lulu.com
Civin, M.P. (2010) Roads I Have Traveled, Lulu.com
Clark, R. W. (1985) The Life of Ernst Chain. St. Martin’s Press, New York.
Chargaff E. (1978) Heraclitean Fire. Rockefeller Univeristy Press, New York.
Surgenor, D. M. (2002) Edwin J. Cohen and the Development of Protein Chemistry. Center for Blood Research, Harvard Univ Press.
Henriques, R. Sir Robert Waley Cohen. Secker & Warburg,London.
Cowan, G. A. (2010) Manhattan Project to the Santa Fe Institute. Univ. New Mexico Press. D
Djerassi, C. (1992) The Pill, Pygmy Chimps, and Degas' Horse. Basic Books, New York.
Djerassi, C. (2001) This Man's Pill. Oxford University Press.
Djerassi, C. (1990) Steroids Made It Possible. American Chemical Society, Washington.
Djerassi, C. (2014) In Retrospect: From the Pill to the Pen. Imperial College.
M. Weinstock (2022) Carbon Queen. MIT Press. (Mildred Dresselhaus)
E, F
Bäumler, E. (1984) Paul Ehrlich. Holmes & Meier, New York.
Marquardt, M. (1949) Paul Ehrlich. Heinemann, London.
Silverstein, A. M. (2002) Paul Ehrlich's Receptor Immunology. Academic Press. San Diego.
Cohen, R. (2013) Sweet and Low. Bernard and Marvin Eisensadt.
Eisner, T. (2003) For Love of Insects. Belknap Press/Harvard University Press.
Eliel, E. L. (1990). From Cologne to Chapel Hill. American Chemical Society, Washington.
Kroyanker, L, et al. (1998) Prof. L. Farḳaś, 1904-1948. Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem.
Feinstone, S. (1972) Fellow Passengers. Vantage Press, New York.
Feldberg, W.S. (1982) Fifty Years On. Liverpool University Press.
Carpenter, J. (1994) Caught in the Act. (W. S. Feldberg)
Feldman, A. (2001) One Step Ahead. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale.
Finkelstein, H. B (2018) Adventures and Travels of a Poor Chemist
Maddox, B. (2002) Rosalind Franklin. HarperCollins, New York.
Sayre, A. (1975) Rosalind Franklin and DNA. Norton, New York.
Glynn, J. (2012) My Sister Rosalind Franklin. OUP, Oxford.
Fruton, J. S. (1994) Eighty Years. Epikouros Press, New Haven.
Harrow, B. (1955) Casimir Funk. Dodd, Mead, New York.
G
Buckland, M. (2006) Emanuel Goldberg and his knowledge machine: information, invention, and political forces.
Gergel, M. G. (1979) Excuse Me Sir, Would You Like to Buy a Kilo of Isopropyl Bromide? Pierce Chemical Company.
Gergel, M. G. (1983) The Ageless Gergel. Max Gergel, State Park, SC.
Goodman, M. (2005) What's Doing? A Tribute to Professor Murray Goodman. Bentham.
Gribou, H.G.(2012) Hunted in Warsaw: A Memoir of Resistance and Survival in the Holocaust. McFarland.
Hornblum, A. (2010) The Invisible Harry Gold: The Man Who Gave the Soviets the Atom Bomb, Yale
Goldblith, S. A. (1996) Appetite for Life. Food & Nutrition Press. Trumbull, Conn.
Mason, B. (1992) Victor Moritz Goldschmidt. Geochemical Society, San Antonio, Texas.
Kinzer, S. (2019) Poisioner in Chief. Holt. (Sidney Gottlieb)
Grove, A. S. (2001) Swimming Across. Warner Books, New York.
Tedlow, R. S. (2007 ) Andy Grove. Portfolio. Dutton.
Jackson, T. (1997) Inside Intel, The Story of Andrew Grove and the Rise of the World's Most Powerful Chip Company.
H
Stolzenberg, D. (2004) Fritz Haber. Chemical Heritage Press, Philadelphia.
Charles, D. (2005) Mastermind. Ecco, New York. (Fritz Haber).
Goran, M. (1967) The Story of Fritz Haber. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.
Hargttai, I. (2004) Our Lives. Akadémiai Kiadó. Budapest.
Hauptman, Herbert A. (2008) On The Beauty of Science.
Breuer, M. M. (1982) Milton Harris. American Chemical Society, Washington.
Hartog, M. (1949) Philip Hartog. Constable, London. (Philip Hartog)
Heeger, A. J. (2015) Never Lose Your Nerve, World Scientific.
Horowitz, D. (2022) Leibowitz or God's Absence. Academic Studies Press, Boston.
Katz, H. S. (2013) A Material Scientist's Memoir. Xlibris.
Clary, D. C. (2024) Walter Kohn: From Kindertransport and Internment to DFT and the Nobel Prize
Schindler, T.E. (2021) A Hidden Legacy: The Life and Work of Esther Zimmer Lederberg, OUP.
Sapp, J. (2021) Genes, Germs and Medicine. The Life of Joshua Lederberg. World Scientific.
Horowitz, D. (2022) Leibowitz or God's Absence. Academic Studies Press, Boston.
W. H. Brock (2002) Justus von Liebig: The Chemical Gatekeeper. Cambridge.
Loebl, S. (1997) At the Mercy of Strangers. Pacifica Press, Pacifica, Calif.
Loewi, O. (1953) From the Workshop of Discoveries. University of Kansas Press, Lawrence.
Levi-Montalcini, R. (1988) In Praise of Imperfection. Basic Books, New York
Angier, C. (2000) The Double Bond. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. New York (Primo Levi)
Anissimov, M. (1999) Primo Levi. Overlook Press, Woodstock, New York (There are many books about the life of Primo Levi, including his own writings)
Brock, W. H. (1997) Justus von Liebig. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. There are other biographies of Liebig.
Waksman, S. A. Jacob G. Lipman. (1966) Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Lipmann, F. (1971) Wanderings of a Biochemist. Wiley-Interscience, New York.
Pauly, P. J. (1987) Controlling Life. Oxford University Press, New York. (Jacques Loeb)
Richards, T .W. (1913) The Scientific Work of Morris Loeb. Harvard University Press.
Chemists Club (1913) Morris Loeb. Privately Printed. New York.
Gavroglu, K. ((1995) Fritz London. Cambridge University Press.
Luria, S. E. (1984) A Slot Machine, A Broken Test Tube. Harper and Row, New York
Selya, R. (2022) Salvador Luria, MIT Press.
M
Meyer, R.E. (1917) Victor Meyer. Leipzig, Akademische verlagsgesellschaft m. b. h
Rife, P. Lise (1999) Meitner and the Dawn of theNuclear Age. Birkhäuser, Boston.
Sime, R. L.(1996) Lise Meitner. University of California Press. Berkeley.
Norman, A. (2021) The Amazing Story of Lise Meitner. Barnsley, South Yorkshire, Havertown, PA.
Brown, A. Bound by Muscle, Oxford. (Otto Meyerhof).
Schmitt, M. (2023) Otto Meyerhof. Bradford.
Carlson, E. A. (1981) Genes, Radiation, and Society. Cornell Univesity Press. Ithaca, New York. (H. J. Muller)
Schwartz, J. (2008) In Pursuit of the Gene: From Darwin to DNA. Harvard, Cambridge. (H. J. Muller)
Pesce, A. J. (2003) Samuel Natelson http://www.aacc.org/SiteCollectionDocuments/Divisions/history/biography.pdf.
Mark, H. F. (1993) From Small Organic Molecules to Large. American Chemical Society.
Marchant, J. (1916) Raphael Meldola. Williams and Norgate, London.
Holmes, F. L. (2001) Meselson, Stahl, and the Replication of DNA. Yale University Press.
Dunthorne, J. (2025) Children of Radium. Penguin. (Siegfried Merzbacher)
Meth-Cohn, O. (2015) The Nearly Man. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition .
Brown, A. (2022) Bound by Muscle. Oxford. (Otto Meyerhof)
Schmitt, M (2023) Otto Meyerhof. Bradford.
K. Kamp and F. Neumann (2010) Barbara Mez-Starck, A Lifetime of Devotion to Science. August Dreesbach.
Bolitho, H. (1933) Alfred Mond. Adelphi, London.
Cohen, J. M. (1956) The Life of Ludwig Mond. Methuen, London.
Lischka, J. R. (1985) Ludwig Mond and the British Alkali Industry. Garland, New York.
Goodman, J. (1982) The Mond Legacy. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London.
N
Macrae, N. (1992) John von Neumann. Pantheon Books, New York.
Von Neumann is included in this list because his early studies were in chemistry and he earned his diploma in chemical engineering. There are other books books about his life.
Portugal, F. H. (2015) The Least Likely Man: Marshall Nirenberg and the Discovery of the Genetic Code. MIT.
From Berlin to New York: Life and work of the almost forgotten German-Jewish biochemist Carl Neuberg, 1877-1956.
Novomeysky, M.A.(1958) Given to Salt. Max Parrish. London.
Novomeysky, M. A. (1956) My Siberian Life. Max Parrish. London.
Numerof. P.(2006) In August 1945. Los Alamos Historical Society.
O
Olah, G. A. (2001) A Life of Magic Chemistry. Wiley-Interscience. New York
Jensen, W. B. (1999) What a privilege. University of Cincinnati. (Milt Orchin)
J. Robert Oppenheimer. Earned his undergraduate degree in chemistry. There are many books about his life.
Fritzsche, H. and Schwartz, B. (2008) The Science and Technology Of An American Genius: Stanford R. Ovshinsky.
Howard, G.S. (2006) Stan Ovshinsky and the Hydrogen Economy: Creating a Better World.
Perutz, M. (1997) Science is Not A Quiet Life: Unraveling the Atomic Mechanism of Haemoglobin. Imperial College Press.
P, Q, R
Ferry, G. (2007) Max Perutz and the Secret of Life. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. Cold Spring Harbor, New York.
Perutz V., ed,. 2009) What a Time I Am Having: Selected Letters of Max Perutz. Cold Spring Harbor, New York.
Nye, M. J. (2011) Michael Polanyi and His Generation. University of Chicago.
Polanyi Festschrift Committee (1961), The Logic of Personal Knowledge. Routledge.
Scott, W. T. and Moleski, M. X. Sj. (2005) Michael Polanyi. Oxford University Press. There are other books about M. Polanyi.
Rabi, I. I. (1960) My Life and Times as a Physicist. Claremont College, Clarement, California.
Karp, V. and Karp. B. (1988) Louis Rapkine Orpheum Press.
Pogany, G. (2011) When Even the Poets Were Silent. Brandram, UK.
Pogany, George (2104) Where is my Home? CreateSpace.
Prusiner, S. B. (2014) Madness and Memory: The Discovery of Prions--A New Biological Principle of Disease
Riehl, N. and Seitz, F. (1996) Stalin's Captive. American Chemical Society. (N. Riehl)
Rigden, J. S. (2000) Rabi, Scientist and Citizen. Harvard University Press.
Rocek, J. My Life 1924-1966. http://rocek.knowtheworld.org/memoirs.pdf
Rona, E. (1978) How it Came About: Radioactivity, Nuclear Physics, Atomic Physics, Oak Ridge.
Ross, J. (2001) Little Doc. (Chemical Engineer) Xlibris. (not to be confused with physical chemist of same name)
Rossmann, M.G. (2014) Selected Papers of Michael G. Rossmann.
Rothschild, K.C. (2011). Tivicarl Pursuits. Mazo Publ.
S
Sabsovich, K. (1922) Adventures in Idealism. Privately Printed. New York. (H. L. Sabsosvich)
Sacks, O. (2001) Uncle Tungsten. Vintage Books, New York.
Sacks, O. (2015) On the Move: A Life. Knopf.
Endelman, T. M. (2022) The Last Anglo-Jewish Gentlemen. Indiana University. (Redclife Salaman)
Carter, R. (1965) Breakthrough. Trident Press, New York.(Jonas Salk)
Kluger, J. (2004) Splendid Solution. Putnam’s. New York (Jonas Salk)
deCroes, C. J (2015) Jonas Salk: A Life. Oxford.
Auerbacher, I. and Schatz, A. (2006) Finding Dr. Schatz. iUniverse, New York.
Pringle, P. (2012) Experiment Eleven. Walker. New York. (A. Schatz)
Scherzer, J. (2014) In the Vortex. CreateSpace.
Beck, T (2005) David Seymour (Chim). Phaidon, London. (There are other books about David Seymour.)
Large, D.C.(2003) And The World Closed Its Doors. Basic Books. (Max Schohl)
Shaw, R. A. (2015) A Life in Science: Gifted by the Kinderstransport. Univ. of Wolverhampton.
Arms, N. (1966) A Prophet in Two Countries. Pergamon, Oxford. (F. E. Simon)
McRae, K. D. (2014) Nuclear Science (F.E. Simon)
Siminovitch, L. (2003). Relfections on a Life in Science. Toronto.
Sinsheimer, R. L. (1994) The Strands of a Life. University of Calfornia Press. Berkeley.
Nicholson, J. A Long Road Home: the Life and Times of Grisha Sklovsky.
Snarey, Z. B., (2018) My Hungarian Family, Kindle Direct Publishing.
Somorjai, G. (2013) An American Scientist: The Autobiography of Gabor A. Somorjai.
Steinberg, P. (2000) Speak You Also. Metropolitan Books, New York.
Stent, G. S (1998) Nazis, Women and Molecular Biology. Briones Books. Kensington, California.
Baenninger, A. et al. (2004) Good Chemistry. McGraw-Hill, New York. (Leo Sternbach).
Stieglitz, A. (1997 Alfred Stieglitz. Aperture, New York. There are many books about Alfred Stieglitz.
McCoy, H. (1938?) Julius Stieglitz.
Furbank, P. N. (1966) Italo Svevo. Secker & Warburg, London. There are many biographies of Italo Svevo.
Svirsky, P. (1976) Hostages. Knopf, New York (Pauline Svirsky)
T, U, V
Tarnopolsky, Y. (1993) Memoirs of 1984. University Press of America. Lanham, Maryland.
Cooper, G. M. et al. (eds.) (1995) The DNA Provirus Legacy. ASM Press, Washington, D.C. (Howard Temin).
Gammon, C and Unger, I. (2013) The Unwritten diary of Israel Unger, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Waterloo, Canada.
Varmus, H. (2010) The Art and Polictics of Science. Norton.
Vilcek, J. (2016) Love and Science Seven Stories Press,
Vrba, R. and Bestic, A. (1963) I Cannot Forgive. Sidgwick and Jackson. London.
Freedland, J. (2022) The Escape Artist. Harper.
W, X Y, Z.
Waksman, S. A. (1958) My Life With the Microbes. Scientific Book Club, London.
Warshel, A. (2022) From Kibbutz Fishponds to The Nobel Prize.
Krebs, Hans. (1981) Otto Warburg. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Varmus, Harold. The Art and Politics of Science.
Dunlop, M. D. (2016) Goodbye Berlin: The Biography of Gerald Wiener. Birlinn.
Weizmann, C. Trial and Error. (1950) East and West Library. London.There are many books about Chaim Weizmann.
Weiss, D.W. (1999) Reluctant Return. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.
Welch, H. and Kryger, R. (2004) A Passover in Rome. Vantage Press, New York.
Wagner, F. S. (1981) Eugene P. Wigner, An Architect of the Atomic Age. Rákóczi Foundation, Toronto.
Szanton, A. (1992) The recollections of Eugene P. Wigner as told to Andrew Szanton. Plenum, New York.
Warshel, A. (2021) From Kibbutz to The Nobel Prize. World Scientific.
Willstätter, R.(1965) From My Life, ed. Stoll, A; Benjamin, New York.
Winkelman, S. J. (2000) A Life in the Balance. Wayne State University Press, Detroit.
Wunderlich, B. (2010)A Science Career Against All Odds. Springer.
Straus, E. (1998). Rosalyn Yalow. Plenum Trade,. New York.