Michael Heidelberger was an American immunologist who is regarded as the father of modern immunology and the founder of immunochemistry. The branch of biochemistry that examines the immune system of animals on a molecular level. Michael Heidelberger was born in 1888 in New York City, and decided at age eight that he wanted to be a chemist, which he himself later judged no more than a "pigheaded idea." He received all of his academic degrees from Columbia University, culminating with a Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1911. He received the National Medal of Science from President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967. He died on June 25, 1991 (aged 103) in New York City.