 Ironically , Reines excelled in literary and history courses , but received average or low marks in science and math in his freshman year of high school , though he improved in those areas by his junior and senior years through the encouragement of a teacher who gave him a key to the school laboratory . This cultivated a love of science by his senior year . In response to a question seniors were asked about what they wanted to do for a <unk> quote , he responded : " To be a physicist <unk> . " 
