Fred Feldman

Fred Feldman was born near Baku, Azerbaijan, as his family was fleeing from the German army during World War II. After the war, as Holocaust survivors, they eventually escaped the Soviet Union, to refugee collection centers in Poland, and were transferred to several displaced persons camps in Austria, where they remained for three years trying to obtain visas to immigrate to the United States.

He arrived at age seven with his family in the United States, unable to speak English, and went through public school systems from kindergarten through high school. Fred attended the University of Chicago as an undergraduate and Purdue University where he received a PhD in biochemistry. From the time Feldman was a child, he developed a passion for collecting stories and photographs of his extensive and exceptional family history. As an adult, and while fully engaged in his professional activities, he conducted myriad interviews of survivors and his family, and extensively documented all their photographs and history. Since retirement, he has produced a four DVD video documentary of his family's history and used that material as a basis for writing his book. While there are a number of historical fiction books describing events of this era, there are few authors remaining that survived these experiences that can describe them with such detail and veracity and relate them to current times. While he could have grown up to be a goat herder in Azerbaijan, his progression from those horrible times to becoming a top scientist adds an interesting and unusual thread to his story.

Beyond expectations from his unique beginnings, Dr. Feldman worked in the pharmaceutical industry for thirty years, becoming a senior vice president and chief science officer with global responsibilities, and chairing an international world-class scientific advisory board. He has been invited and participated in industry conferences as a keynote speaker and presented in venues around the world.