Carolyn Bertozzi: ‘Shooting hoops is very meditative’

I was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in a suburb with two sisters. My father was a physics professor at MIT, and my mom, as women of her era often were, was a fulltime mom. She didn’t have the opportunity to go to college when she was younger, but later in her 60s – after we were all out of the house – she actually did go and get a college degree.

I wanted to be a professional soccer player as a kid growing up. Back then, there was no such career as that for women, so it wasn’t a very informed idea. I would have also loved to have been a rock star. When I was in high school, and then even in college, I fantasised about being a musician.

I didn’t prioritise science over anything else until I was taking biology, chemistry, math and physics in university because I thought maybe I might want to go to medical school someday. And then chemistry really caught me, especially organic chemistry. I just thought it was so inherently logical and beautiful and visual, and it really came to life for me in a way that other classes had not.