Joseph P. Dougherty begins his oral history with a discussion of his youth in various parts of New York City and raises such topics as his family's religion and his father's experiences with the local unions. Dougherty received an education at a liberal Catholic high school where he became involved in the sciences. He attended New York University (NYU) for his undergraduate degree, which he felt was academically interesting because of the opportunity to pursue all manner of mathematics and science. Dougherty lived in and experienced Greenwich Village, a broad cultural education, though while at NYU, Dougherty became interested in genetic manipulations and gene therapy. (He also became a competitive street handball player in New York City during his undergraduate years. ) Before pursuing graduate research, Dougherty worked as a laboratory technician with Arnold M. Katz and Munekazu Shigekawa at Mount Sinai Hospital. He undertook his graduate work at Yale University with Peter Lengyel in the biophysics department; because of his laboratory experiences at Mount Sinai, he was an accomplished researcher when he began his PhD work at Yale. Following the completion of his PhD , Dougherty pursued post-doctoral research with Pierre Chambon in Strasbourg, France and subsequently with Howard Temin at the University of Wisconsin. The two very different post-doctoral experiences allowed Dougherty the opportunity to discuss funding and science in different countries and different types of academic institutions. Throughout the interview Dougherty talks openly about issues related to funding and his persistent interest in moving to France, and, additionally, the duty of the scientist to educate people.