Allen Debus was born in Chicago, Illinois, an only child. He grew up in Evanston, a suburb to the north of Chicago, where he attended public schools. Interested in chemical engineering, he was accepted at Rose-Hulman in Indiana, but anticipating that he would be drafted into the Army, he decided to attend Northwestern University instead so that he could remain at home. Never drafted, he earned a BS in chemistry, with almost enough credits for a second major in history. From there he went to Indiana University as assistant to John Murray, who advised Debus to write his master's thesis on the history of chemistry in the Tudor-Stuart period. Instead, Debus met and married Brunilda Lopez-Rodriguez; both took chemist jobs at Abbott Laboratories in North Chicago, Illinois. After working at Abbott for about five years, Debus decided to seek a PhD in the history of science, a field of study in only three schools: Harvard University, University of Wisconsin, and Cornell University. He chose Harvard, where he wrote his dissertation on the English Paracelsians under I. Bernard Cohen. He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to University College in London, attracted there by Douglas McKie. He met Walter Pagel, who served as a long-distance dissertation advisor. When Debus returned he gave a paper at a meeting of the History of Science Society, at which Cohen introduced him to Cyril Smith of the University of Chicago. Debus was invited to meet the other faculty at University of Chicago and was then offered an assistant professorship. At that time there had been only seven previous PhD 's granted to history of science students at Harvard, and Debus was one of the first in the history of chemistry, so Debus' appointment was in the history department. Eventually the Morris Fishbein Center for the Study of the History of Science and Medicine was established at the University, and Debus became its first director. He retained his named chair into his retirement, which occurred in 1996. Debus' academic interest has long been 17th century chemistry. Paracelsus and people like him were interested not in making gold from base metals, but in understanding nature through analysis by fire. Debus wanted to study the place of chemistry in the scientific revolution with materials available to all; to that end he has a large collection of rare books from this time period, a collection he began in the early 1940's. He says that he has about 650 such books, the earliest from 1501. A scholar not just of the Paracelsians but also of vaudeville music, Debus also collects phonograph records dating from the 1890-1930's; of these he has more than 15,000, with 40 machines to play them on. He writes notes for historic compact discs of American popular music. Debus has won many prestigious awards in his nearly 40 years at the University of Chicago, and he has published many books and articles. He continues his research and his music-listening at his home in Deerfield, Illinois.