I received my undergraduate degree in engineering in 1939 and a Master of Science degree in mathematical physics in 1941 at Steven Institute of Technology.

Reines is succinctly establishing his academic formation and disciplinary trajectory: an engineering undergraduate education followed by graduate work in mathematical physics. The pairing signals a movement from applied, problem-solving training toward the theoretical tools needed for mid‑20th‑century physics, while also implying the practical competence that later characterized his experimental work. As a self-referential statement of credentials, the quote functions less as an aphorism than as a biographical datum—often used in interviews, autobiographical sketches, or award citations to frame how his early education prepared him for wartime research and, ultimately, for the demanding instrumentation and analysis involved in neutrino detection.