How Dr. Paul Brandwein’s Mentorship and Guidance Affected My Scientific Interests and Career

Abstract

Dr. Paul Brandwein was my science teacher and mentor when I was a student at Forest Hills High School, in Queens, New York, from 1942 to 1946. I learned long after graduating from Forest Hills that our school had apparently been chosen by the New York City School System to receive some especially excellent teachers, perhaps as a demonstration project to determine whether being taught by unusually qualified teachers would lead to increased student achievement. One of these teachers was Dr. Paul Brandwein, an unusual high school science teacher in many ways, in part because he had earned a PhD. There were then few people with doctorates in science working as teachers in New York City’s public high schools.