Born in New York City. Graduated from Eastchester High School where he ran the half-mile on the track team. Graduated from Johns Hopkins University, majoring in chemistry and lettering in fencing (saber). Obtained his doctoral degree in nuclear chemistry from Columbia University during which period he also played for the New York Lacrosse Club. A post-doctoral research appointment at Brookhaven National Laboratory was spent studying high-energy fission. The majority of the next years was spent on the chemistry faculty of Carnegie Mellon University at which he was promoted through the ranks to full Professor, including a 5-year term as Associate Dean of Science. During those years he spent one sabbatical at the Institute for Nuclear Physics in Legnaro, Italy and another at the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute in Tokai, Japan. He also played for a few years on the Pittsburgh Lacrosse Club. His research has included studies on high-energy nuclear reactions, positronium chemistry, chromatographic separations, and the Periodic Table. In the latter category, he served for four terms as chair of the Joint Working Party for the Discovery of New Elements under the auspices of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics. In the former, he was also chair of the Committee on Nuclear and Radioanalytical Techniques. He was chair of the American Chemical Society Committee on Nomenclature, Terminology and Symbols and of the Nuclear and Radiochemistry Division. His wife since graduate school is an immunochemist. They have three children and three grandchildren and are both now retired and living in Palo Alto, Callifornia.