Sidney Altman was born May 7th, 1939 in Montreal, Quebec. He was the second son of poor immigrant parents who immigrated to Canada from Europe in the 1920s. His father, Victor Altman, ran a grocery store, while his mother, Ray Arlin, worked in a textile mill. Altman’s upbringings and family conditions taught him that hard work yields rewards, something that would be crucial in his studies as a scientist.
As a child, Sidney Altman was an avid reader and aspiring scientist, reading about atoms and nuclear weapons at the young age of 12. Growing up, his role model was Albert Einstein who was also often idolised by others who were good at studies. At the age of thirteen, Altman was presented with a book about the periodic table of elements, ultimately sparking his interest in science.
In 1972, Sidney Altman married Ann M. Körner daughter of Stephan Körner, a british philosopher, and had two children named Daniel, born in 1974, and Leah, born in 1977.
Sidney Altman now holds a dual citizenship in Canada and the United States. He currently lives in New Haven, Connecticut, home to Yale University where he teaches as a professor.
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He had originally planned to enroll at McGill University in Quebec, but due to his friend’s encouragement, Altman decided to major in nuclear physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After losing interest in physics, he was soon intrigued by the complexity of DNA, and thus decided to attend the University of Colorado before going to Harvard University to major in biophysics. Two years later, Altman once again moved to Cambridge, England where he began his Nobel Prize Winning research on