Albert Karl Beck was born in 1947 in Karlsruhe (Germany), and after completing secondary school he undertook a chemistry technician’s apprenticeship at the Institute for Organic Chemistry of the University of Karlsruhe from 1963 to 1966. Following 18 months of military service he joined the Seebach research group in 1968. Between 1969 and 1972 he continued his education, obtaining official certification as a chemical technician at the Fachschule für Chemotechnik in Karlsruhe. In 1971 he followed D. Seebach to the Institute for Organic Chemistry at the University of Giessen, and in 1974 he engaged in a six-month research visit to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Albert K. Beck has been an active part of the Laboratory for Organic Chemistry at the ETH in Zürich since the time of Seebachþs arrival there. During his long association with the Seebach research group he has participated in essentially all of the group’s research themes, as evidenced by his coauthorship of more than 90 publications.