Cyril Ponnamperuma, an eminent researcher in the field of chemical evolution, rose through several National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) divisions as a research chemist to head the Laboratory of Chemical Evolution at the University of Maryland, College Park. His career focused on explorations into the origin of life and the "primordial soup" that contained the precursors of life. In this search, Ponnamperuma took advantage of discoveries in such diverse fields as molecular biology and astrophysics.

Born in Galle, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) on October 16, 1923, Cyril Andres Ponnamperuma was educated at the University of Madras (where he received a B.A. in Philosophy, 1948), the University of London (B.Sc., 1959), and the University of California at Berkeley (Ph.D., 1962). His interest in the origin of life began to take clear shape at the Birkbeck College of the University of London, where he studied with J. D. Bernal, a well-known...