Stephen Somerstein

I entered CCNY in the fall of 1959 with the goal of becoming a scientist. What kind of scientist was still a bit further off, and I had much to learn before I knew where I wanted to go. For the first few years at CCNY, I was in the evening session of the college and I worked part-time during the day at my father's motion picture film editing studio in Manhattan. I had the opportunity to go into the film business as my father had worked at 20th Century Fox Studios and introduced me to producers and directors on both coasts. I was undeterred, and science was my goal. My major course concentration was physics, and my aim was to become an applied research scientist. What kind of scientist I would become would arise only after doing a lot more sampling of the world of engineering and physics. As a youngster, I had been engaged in different endeavors and I won a science fair award for building a pulsejet engine. I read about the lives of engineers and scientists and saw myself carrying on the noble tradition. I'd read 'Microbe Hunters,' and though biology was not my goal, their search for the root cause of disease and its resolution was an identical path to mine. CCNY was my avenue to become a real working scientist. The college had superb, innovative professors, resulting in seven Nobel Prize winners. That prize was not my goal, but it was the path to become a good scientist. I expected that my professors would be tough and comprehensive; if you made it through their educational minefield, you'd be well prepared for the outside world. It was also important to me to receive a broad liberal arts education covering a myriad of subjects that I considered important for an educated citizen. All my life, I've been an eclectic polymath, pursuing many interests, especially photography. I was particularly attracted to documentary photography, so a year after entering CCNY, I joined the evening newspaper, Main Events, as their photographer.