Juris Hartmanis was Turing award winner laying out foundations for complexity theory. His life in his own words: https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2015/4/184690-an

Juris Hartmanis was Turing award winner laying out foundations for complexity theory. His life in his own words: https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2015/4/184690-an-interview-wi https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2015/4/184690-an-interview-wi... "I also discovered, during my education and early research experience, that you do not have to know that much to do research. With a good background education, one can very quickly absorb the necessary specialized knowledge for a specific research area. I think what Caltech really taught me was to be independent, and to try to go to the essence of a problem." In some ways a typical(and tragically sad) beginning for Latvian(and other Baltic) refugees at the end of WW2 but quite extraordinary achievements later on.