Renowned as a skilled experimentalist at a young age, Bernard Katz's research concerned the nature of nerve transmissions, especially those that cause the stimulation of muscles. He discovered the existence of tiny packages, or "quanta" of neurotransmitter molecules that are responsible for many neural phenomena. For this discovery, he was awarded a share of the 1970 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine with biochemical pharmacologist Julius Axelrod and physiologist Ulf Euler.

Katz was born in Leipzig, Germany, in 1911. His father was Max Katz and his mother, the former Eugenie Rabinowitz. He completed his high school education at Leipzig's Albert Gymnasium in 1929 and then embarked on a study of medicine at the University of Leipzig. In 1933, Katz was awarded the university's Siegfried Garten Prize for research in physiology. A year later he received his medical degree.

Katz's future prospects in Germany in 1934 were not promising. Adolf Hitler had been named...