Kyrides’ seal

Identity is a slippery idea that has grown in importance as the siren call of nationalism has been sounded in country after country. Such appeals leave immigrants with a deep sense of unease. The call’s very purpose is to exclude them from a sense of belonging in the country that they live in by choice, rather than by the accident of birth. As the story of an immigrant chemist illustrates, this exclusion is a mistake.

Loukas Kyriakides was born to ethnic Greek parents in Bursa, Turkey in 1884. He was the fifth of seven children and studied at an American missionary school, Anatolia College, in Marsovan (today Merzifon). The school attracted students from far and wide; there were many ethnic Armenian children and teachers. Ambitious and confident, he graduated top of his class in 1902 and convinced his parents to let him emigrate to America. He landed at Ellis Island, the immigration processing centre in New York, penniless but full of hope.