Anthony R. Michaelis

Who was Anthony R. Michaelis?

Anthony R. Michaelis was a science journalist and publisher.

He was born Kurt Otto Adolf Michaelis, a doctor's son, in Berlin on August 22, 1916 and educated at the Falk Real Gymnasium. Although baptised a Lutheran, he had three Jewish grandparents, which meant that after Hitler came to power in 1933 he would not be allowed to study science - so his father sent him to London.

Michaelis studied aeronautical engineering at the Imperial College of the University of London before switching to Chemistry. He went on to obtain a doctorate on The Dehydrogenation of Alicyclic Compounds and Terpenic Ketones in the Liquid Phase, while lecturing at Sheffield University under Sir Patrick Linstead. Following internment as an 'enemy alien' in England in May 1940 and subsequently Canada, he joined the Auxiliary Fire Service whilst working as a chemist in a paint factory. After graduation, he became chief chemist at Milton Antiseptic.

After World War II Michaelis worked for the British Intelligence Objectives Committee, which investigated enemy scientific developments, and in 1946 he married Ann Aikman, with whom he was to have three children.