[1] His work generally concerned understanding the electronic properties of matter.
After graduating early from public schools in East Cleveland, he played minor league professional baseball in the Cleveland Indians farm system, then entered Vanderbilt University on a football scholarship.
He then combined work with study of physics and quantum mechanics, and in February 1946 returned to the University of Michigan for one term to receive his Ph.D. Drickamer joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he subsequently remained for his entire professional career.
In honor of his outstanding achievements and hard work, one graduate student every year at Illinois from either Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Chemistry, or Physics will be awarded the Harry G. Drickamer Research Fellowship via the Drickamer Fund.
Harry is the father of esteemed biochemist Kurt Drickamer, currently a professor at Imperial College London, discoverer of C-type Lectins.