What do a child refugee and a promising postdoctoral student have in common? Both were “aliens” – the legal term for anyone not a U.S. citizen. Both faced a challenging immigration story – the child came to the US ahead of a war and was put through school by his father’s work in a toothbrush factory; the postdoc was invited to the University of Wisconsin but almost had to make his career in Canada instead because of problems in getting a US visa.

Both chose to become Americans, and both won the Nobel Prize in Medicine. (more…)