As we debate “point-based” vs. “family-based” immigration it is informative to ask what became of the families of mostly penniless, non-formally educated, non-English-speaking immigrants and refugees who came to the US roughly a century ago and of whom D. Reed [R-PA] said, “arrive sick and starving and therefore less capable of contributing to the American economy, and unable to adapt to American culture.” (Reed is an author of the restrictive 1924 immigration law that trapped many such refugees in Europe as the Holocaust loomed.)

In anticipation of the announcement of the 2019 Nobel Prizes the week of October 7th, it is important to note that at least 35 US Nobel laureates in Medicine or Physiology or Chemistry, and 15 Nobel laureates in Physics, are children and grandchildren of this much-disparaged group of “wretched refuse” immigrants. 

Demonstrating the transformative power of generous educational opportunities, a large proportion of US Nobel Laureates graduated from NYC public high schools and 13 graduated from CUNY—including 10 from City College. 
 

Lynn Helena Caporale, Ph.D. received her B.S. with Honors in Chemistry from Brooklyn College and her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of California at Berkeley.  After postdoctoral positions at NYU Medical Center, Memorial/Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Rockefeller University, she joined the Biochemistry faculty at Georgetown University Medical Center.  She has spent over a decade at Merck Research Laboratories.  Dr. Caporale is the author of approximately 50 publications, two issued patents, and several books, including Darwin in the Genome.  Dr. Caporale currently teaches students in the CCNY Masters in Translational Medicine program about the current and future state of the science of cancer prevention and treatment. 

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