A Science Career Against all Odds

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This autobiography is written to follow the initially turbulent and seemingly random path of education and life experiences of the author in the 1930s and 40s during the oppressive 3rd German Reich. These early childhood insights made the author an undesirable student in the 1950s in the totalitarian German Democratic Republic, and ultimately brought him to the USA. Ideally prepared, he completed a first-rate education in record time, leading in 1965 to a tenured professorship in chemistry at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, specializing in research of the solid state of linear macromolecules (polymers, plastics). Early retirement in 1988 led to a new 20-year career as Professor and Distinguished Scientist at the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. A surprising requirement of this career was an extensive amount of travel within the US and worldwide. It rekindled an interest based on his father's love of the literature on explorations, led to a visit of many anthropological sites, and peaked with a trip around the world with Northwestern University Alumni. The unforeseeable results of writing this book were the many links between Bernhard Wunderlich's love of teaching and research to the earliest experiences in his life. He would not want to miss or change anything. The complete list of publications and lectures is available online as electronic supplementary material on extra.springer.com