AbstractThis personal and professional autobiography covers the 57-year period from 1948 to 2005 and includes the studies at the Faculty of Chemical Technology of the Slovak Technical University and the Faculty of Pharmacy of Comenius University, both in Bratislava, as well as the activities at the Regional Pharmaceutical Research Institute and the Institute of Chemistry of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry in Prague, Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and at other research and scientific working places in Slovakia and abroad. It highlights the research on natural substances and enzymes, especially the pectin methyl esterase.