“I got my undergraduate degree in chemical engineering.” — Leroy Chiao Quote

“I got my undergraduate degree in chemical engineering.”

“Growing up in the 1960s, I can't remember a time when I wasn't fascinated by airplanes and rockets.”

“I'm skeptical of claims that we've been visited by aliens from another planet or other dimension, but I don't rule it out 100 percent. I have an open mind, and I do believe there's other life in the universe.”

“Did I think about the risks? Of course I did. Anyone who says otherwise is not being completely honest. The amount of energy it takes to bring a spacecraft to orbital speed, and the forces it endures on re-entry, makes risk impossible to avoid.”

“I'm Chinese-American, of course, and so it's very interesting to see China actually launch their own astronauts, becoming the third nation, following the United States and Russia, to do so.”

“Science does not just drive space travel - space travel also drives science.”

“The development of a rational view of the nature of catalysis was thus absolutely dependent on the creation of the concept of the rate of chemical reaction.”

“I think so many men have this really sharp feeling of being a disappointment in their mid-forties. There's probably something chemical about it - the drop of testosterone, the fact that you don't feel the same way physically. It's a real thing. You do tend to feel like a disappointment.”

“That's not all our crops can do. We are also learning how to transform plants into factories. We can now raise plants that will create enzymes that would otherwise be created in chemical factories.”

“Back when the EPA proposed phasing out ozone-depleting CFCs, the chemical industry howled that refrigerators would fail in America's supermarkets, hospitals and schools.”

“This success led my theoretical group to the chemical reactivity theory, extending more and more widely the range of compound and reactions that were discussed.”