s fierce in all subjects. His high school interest in chemistry carried over into college. After receiving his B.S. degree in biology and chemistry in 1937, and since City College offered no graduate studies or research laboratories at that time, he became one of two hundred pre-med students at the University of Rochester. All through college he worked as a salesman in his parents furnishing store, and earned about $14 a week. This along with a New York State Regents Scholarship of $100 a year and with no college tuition to pay he was able to save enough money to pay for the first half of medical school. While a student, he became aware of a mild jaundice (yellowing) in his eyes. He observed a similar condition among other students and patients at the hospital and published these findings, his first professional paper, in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. He enjoyed studying to become a doctor, and his goal was to practice internal medicine, preferably in an academic setting. The medical school curriculum was uncrowded and close contact with a distinguished faculty was encouraged, but to his shock anti-Semitism was rampant in the academic circles. He was denied academic awards and research opportunities because he was Jewish. He had hoped to receive one of the fellowships from the medical school which allowed a few outstanding students to spend a year doing research, even though the idea of spending a significant amount of his days in the laboratory had no appeal at that time. To his disappointment he was passed over in every department, due to the ethnic and religious barriers which existed during that time, even though his grades were the highest. Although one professor at Rochester stood out, William S. McCann, Chairman of the Department of Medicine, the only one who made any effort to help Kornberg. William McCann persuaded a wealthy patient to endow a scholarship of which Kornberg was the recipient. This enabled Kornberg to p...
