Abstract
Paul Crutzen grew up near the center of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, during a period of economic depression and World War II. Clearly, he was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. However, his family held up and made the best of it, using simple means to overcome the dif fi cult period. This included playing soccer in the streets and having arithmetic and language contests between father and son. Actually young Paul excelled in soccer, languages as well as mathematics, but could not develop these talents in full, at least not immediately. In such an envi- ronment practical solutions are needed, and he took up an education in civil engineering to design bridges in his water-rich country. This was a good career start because later Paul showed that bridges can also be built between scienti fi c disci- plines and communities.
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