A MATTER OF CHOICES

Exhilarating account of a persevering and undaunted life in science. Ajzenberg-Selove was born in Berlin in 1926 of Polish-Russian parents who later settled in France. Father Misha had a degree as a mining engineer from St. Petersburg—a rare distinction for a poor Jew from Warsaw. He was also something of a genius at landing on his feet—becoming a banker in Berlin, running a sugar-beet factory outside Paris, and later, through good luck and connections, escaping from France and landing the family in America, where he achieved further entrepreneurial successes—all this being important, since, without Misha's encouragement, Faye's life would undoubtedly have been different. (By contrast, her mother was a mezzo-soprano, rather spoiled and pampered.) Misha wanted Faye to become an engineer, and, indeed, she became the only woman enrolled in Michigan's school of engineering. But engineering was not her cup of tea. Physics appealed, however. And this is perhaps the oddest feature of her career: she was absolutely terrible at it. ``My academic work was extremely poor,'' she notes, ``but I loved physics, and I was determined to succeed.'' And succeed she did, carving a name for herself in the nuclear spectroscopy of light elements and marrying another successful physicist: Walter Selove—a choice made for her by Marietta Bohr, Niels' daughter-in-law. Compellingly of interest here are the stories of the couple's wooing, of Faye's zeal for teaching, her hard-fought victory in getting tenure in the physics department of the University of Pennsylvania (where Wally also teaches), and not least her battle against recurrent breast cancer. Inspiring examples of one woman's intelligence, commitment, courage, and endurance. And while she may have wobbled once in physics, she clearly knows how to write.