Editing Harry Kroto (section)

==Early years==
Kroto was born in [[Wisbech]], [[Isle of Ely]], Cambridgeshire, England, to Edith and Heinz Krotoschiner,<ref name="Nobel Autobiography">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1996/kroto/biographical/|title=The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1996|website=NobelPrize.org}}</ref><ref>[http://www.notablebiographies.com/supp/Supplement-Ka-M/Kroto-Harold-Walter.html Harold Walter Kroto Biography – life, family, parents, name, wife, school, mother, young, born, college, time, year, Studied Chemistry in College]. Notablebiographies.com. Retrieved 25 December 2011.</ref> his name being of [[Silesian language|Silesian]] origin.<ref name="nobel">{{cite web|title=Harry Kroto – Autobiography|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1996/kroto-autobio.html|publisher=The Nobel Foundation|access-date=21 August 2011}}</ref> His father's family came from [[Bojanowo]], Poland, and his mother's from Berlin. Both of his parents were born in Berlin and fled to Great Britain in the 1930s as [[refugees]] from Nazi Germany; his father was [[Jews|Jewish]]. Harry was raised in [[Bolton]] while the British authorities interned his father on the [[Isle of Man]] as an [[enemy alien]] during World War II.<ref name="Fleur, Nicholas 2016">"Harold Kroto, Chemist who helped illuminate molecules, dies at 76"], ''The New York Times'', 5 May 2016, pg. B14</ref> Kroto attended [[Bolton School]], where he was a contemporary of the actor [[Ian McKellen]]. In 1955, Harold's father shortened the family name to Kroto.<ref name="Nobel Autobiography"/>

As a child, he became fascinated by a [[Meccano]] set.<ref>{{cite web|title=A Round Peg in a Square World|url=http://vega.org.uk/video/programme/62|website=Vega Science Trust|access-date=23 August 2014}}</ref> Kroto credited Meccano, as well as his aiding his father in the latter's balloon factory after World War II – amongst other things – with developing skills useful in scientific research.<ref name="nobel"/><ref name="Fleur, Nicholas 2016"/> He developed an interest in [[chemistry]], [[physics]], and mathematics in secondary school, and because his [[sixth form]] chemistry teacher ([[Harry Heaney]] – who subsequently became a university professor) felt that the [[University of Sheffield]] had the best chemistry department in the United Kingdom, he went to Sheffield.

Although raised Jewish, Kroto stated that religion never made any sense to him.<ref name="nobel"/> He was a humanist who claimed to have three religions: Amnesty Internationalism, atheism, and humour.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.skoltech.ru/tag/kroto/|title=Сколтех &#124; Сколковский институт науки и технологий|website=Сколтех &#124; Сколковский институт науки и технологий}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://thesciencenetwork.org/media/videos/30/Transcript.pdf|title=The Science Studio with Sir Harold Kroto}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/3096030.Harry_W_Kroto|title=Harry W. Kroto Quotes (Author of Nanotubes and Nanowires)|website=www.goodreads.com}}</ref> He was a distinguished supporter of the [[British Humanist Association]].<ref name="humanist">{{cite web|title=Distinguished supporters|url=http://www.humanism.org.uk/about/people/distinguished-supporters|publisher=British Humanist Association|access-date=21 August 2011|date=2011-04-26}}</ref> In 2003 he was one of 22 Nobel Laureates who signed the [[Humanism and Its Aspirations|Humanist Manifesto]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://americanhumanist.org/what-is-humanism/manifesto3/signers|title=Humanism and Its Aspirations: Notable Signers|work=Humanism and Its Aspirations: Humanist Manifesto III, a Successor to the Humanist Manifesto of 1933|publisher=American Humanist Association|access-date=7 September 2017}}</ref>

In 2015, Kroto signed the [[Mainau Declaration|Mainau Declaration 2015 on Climate Change]] on the final day of the 65th [[Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings|Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting]]. The declaration was signed by a total of 76 Nobel Laureates and handed to then-President of the French Republic, [[François Hollande]], as part of the successful [[Paris Climate Change Conference|COP21 climate summit]] in Paris.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.mainaudeclaration.org/|title=Mainau Declaration|website=www.mainaudeclaration.org|access-date=2018-01-11}}</ref>