Kochen was born in Antwerp, Belgium, and escaped the Nazis with his family, thanks to a courageous Norwegian ship captain. Raised in England, he attended grammar school before moving to Canada. Kochen attended McGill University and obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees there. He moved to the US afterwards and received his Ph.D. (Ultrafiltered Products and Arithmetical Extensions) from Princeton University in 1958 under the direction of Alonzo Church. Since 1967 he has been a member of Princeton's Department of Mathematics. He chaired the department from 1989 to 1992 and became the Henry Burchard Fine Professor in mathematics in 1994.[1] During 1966–1967 and 1978–1979, Kochen was at the Institute for Advanced Study.[2]