Synopsis - Chlorophyll Biosynthesis and Technological Applications - page 33

Chapter 2
Synopsis
A journey of 10,000 miles starts with the first mile
(Confucius).
2.1 Prologue
I was born on July 11, 1936 at 5:00 a.m. in the hospital of my uncle, Nicolas Rebeiz, a
famous Lebanese general surgeon. It was a Saturday. My dad named me Constantin,
nick named Tino, at birth, after the uncle who raised him. My grandfather had eloped
with his mistress Anastasia, to Venezuela, at the turn of the twentieth century and left
my dad and his wife in the care of his brother Constantin (Fig. 2.1 ).
I was told that when I was 3 day-old, Alice the head nurse in the Rebeiz Hospital
was carrying me in her arms on her daily tour of the patients. When she entered the
room of a Moroccan astrologer, he told her to get closer, looked at my face, asked
her when I was exactly born, and told her “tell his folks that if they are not well
enough to educate him, he is going to become a great criminal mind. But if he gets
educated he will become a well-known scientist”. That event has puzzled me, since
I was told that story 71 years ago. Indeed, my family was mainly engaged in
business. The closest thing to science in the family was Constantin Rebeiz, the
Famous Lebanese MD who raised my father, and Nicolas Rebeiz, the surgeon, in
whose Hospital I was born. Nicolas had married Marcelle Rebeiz, the only child of
Constantin Rebeiz, and the first cousin of my father.
2.2 From the Lycee Francais of Beirut Lebanon
to the American University of Beirut
After 13 year of French schooling in a French private school (Fig. 2.2 ), The Lycee
Francais of Beirut Lebanon, and after passing successfully the mandatory French
first and second part baccalaureate exams, I decided to attend the newly founded