Editing Sidney Altman (section)

==Family and education==
Altman was born on May 7, 1939, in [[Montreal]], [[Quebec]], Canada.<ref name=r1>[https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1989/altman.html Sidney Altman]. nobelprize.org</ref> His parents, Ray (Arlin), a textile worker, and Victor Altman, a grocer,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.science.ca/scientists/scientistprofile.php?pID=3&pg=3|title=science.ca : Sid Altman|website=www.science.ca|access-date=March 23, 2018}}</ref> were [[Jews|Jewish]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jewish Nobel Prize Winners in Chemistry |url=https://www.jinfo.org/Nobels_Chemistry.html |access-date=2023-03-30 |website=www.jinfo.org}}</ref> [[Immigration to Canada|immigrants to Canada]], each coming from [[Eastern Europe]] as a young adult, in the 1920s. Altman's mother was from [[Białystok]] in [[Poland]], and had come to Canada with her sister at the age of eighteen, learning English and working in a textile factory to earn money to bring the rest of their family to Quebec. Altman's father, born in [[Ukraine]], had been a worker on a [[Collective farming|collective farm]] in the Soviet Union. He was sponsored to come to Canada as a farm worker, but later, as a husband and a father of two sons, he supported the family by running a small grocery store in Montreal.<ref name=NobelChem/> Sidney Altman was later to look back on his parents' lives as an illustration of the value of the work ethic: "It was from them I learned that hard work in stable surroundings could yield rewards, even if only in infinitesimally small increments."<ref name=LesPrixNobel>{{Cite web|author=Altman, Sidney |editor=Karl Grandin |title=Sidney Altman Autobiography |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1989/altman-autobio.html |work=Les Prix Nobel |publisher=The Nobel Foundation |year=1989 |access-date=September 10, 2011}}
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As Altman reached adulthood, the family's financial situation had become secure enough that he was able to pursue a college education. He went to the United States to study physics at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]. While at MIT, he was a member of the ice hockey team.<ref name=NobelChem/> After achieving his bachelor's degree from MIT in 1960, Altman spent 18 months as a graduate student in physics at [[Columbia University]]. Due to personal concerns and the lack of opportunity for beginning graduate students to participate in laboratory work, he left the program without completing the degree.<ref name=NobelChem/> Some months later, he enrolled as a graduate student in biophysics at the [[University of Colorado Health Sciences Center|University of Colorado Medical Center]]. His project was a study of the effects of [[acridine]]s on the replication of [[Enterobacteria phage T4|bacteriophage T4]] DNA. He received his Ph.D. in biophysics from the [[University of Colorado]] in 1967 with thesis advisor [[Leonard Lerman]]; Lerman went in 1967 to [[Vanderbilt University]], where Altman worked briefly as a researcher in molecular biology before leaving for Harvard.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/767/000100467/|title=Sidney Altman|website=www.nndb.com|access-date=March 23, 2018}}</ref>

Altman was married to Ann M. Körner (daughter of [[Stephan Körner]]) in 1972. They are the parents of two children, Daniel and Leah.<ref name=LesPrixNobel/> Having lived primarily in the United States since departing Montreal to attend MIT in 1958, Altman became a U.S. citizen in 1984, maintaining dual citizenship as a Canadian citizen as well.<ref name=NobelChem/><ref name=BBY1990>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Newton |first=Carolyn D. |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |title=Altman, Sidney |volume=1990 Britannica Book of the Year |year=1990 |location=Chicago |isbn=0-85229-522-7 |pages=81}}</ref>