Gerhard Heinrich Friedrich Otto Julius Herzberg, (; December 25, 1904 – March 3, 1999) was a German-Canadian pioneering physicist and physical chemist, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1971, "for his contributions to the knowledge of electronic structure and geometry of molecules, particularly free radicals". Herzberg's main work concerned atomic and molecular spectroscopy. He is well known for using these techniques that determine the structures of diatomic and polyatomic molecules, including free radicals which are difficult to investigate in any other way, and for the chemical analysis of astronomical objects. Herzberg served as Chancellor of Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada from 1973 to 1980.

Early life and family

thumb|Commemorative plaque at [[College Building (Saskatchewan)|College Building, University of Saskatchewan]]

Herzberg was born in Hamburg, Germany on December 25, 1904 to Albin H. Herzberg and Ella Biber. He had an older brother, Walter, who was born in January 1904. Herzberg started Vorschule (pre-school) late, after contracting measles. Gerhard and his family were atheists and kept this fact hidden. He married Luise Herzberg (née Oettinger), a spectroscopist and fellow researcher in 1929. (Luise Herzberg, died in 1971.)

Nazi persecution and immigration to Canada

In 1933, the Nazi Party introduced a law banning men with Jewish wives from teaching at universities. Herzberg was working as a lecturer at the university in Darmstadt. His wife and fellow researcher, Luise Herzberg, was Jewish so they began making plans to leave Germany near the end of 1933. Leaving Germany was a daunting task as many barriers faced the thousands of Germans trying to flee Nazi persecution. However Herzberg had earlier worked with a visiting physical chemist named John Spinks, from the University of Saskatchewan. Spinks helped Herzberg get a job at the university in Saskatoon. When Herzberg and his wife left Germany in 1935, the Nazis let them take only the equivalent of $2.50 each and personal belongings. Herzberg completed his Dr.-Ing. degree under in 1928.

  • 1928–30 Post-doctoral work at the University of Göttingen and Bristol University under James Franck, Max Born, John Lennard-Jones
  • 1930 Darmstadt University of Technology: Privatdozent (lecturer) and senior assistant in Physics
  • 1935 Guest professor, University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, Canada)
  • 1936–45 Professor of Physics, University of Saskatchewan
  • 1939 Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
  • 1945–8 Professor of spectroscopy, Yerkes Observatory, University of Chicago (Chicago, United States)
  • 1948 Director of the Division of Pure Physics, National Research Council of Canada
  • 1951 Fellow of the Royal Society of London
  • 1957–63 Vice President of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics
  • 1956–7 President of the Canadian Association of Physicists
  • 1960 gives Bakerian Lecturer of the Royal Society of London
  • 1966–7 President of the Royal Society of Canada
  • 1968 Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences
  • 1968 Companion of the Order of Canada
  • 1973-1980 Chancellor of Carleton University (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)
  • 1981 Founding member of the World Cultural Council.
  • 1992 Sworn into the Queen's Privy Council for Canada

Herzberg was honoured with memberships or fellowships by a very large number of scientific societies, received many awards and honorary degrees in different countries. The NSERC Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering, Canada's highest research award, was named in his honour in 2000. The Canadian Association of Physicists also has an annual award named in his honour. The Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics is named for him. He was made a member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science. Asteroid 3316 Herzberg is named after him. In 1964 he was awarded the Frederic Ives Medal by the OSA. He was later named an Honorary Member of the Society. At Carleton University, there is a building named after him that belongs to the Physics and Mathematics/Statistics Departments, Herzberg Laboratories. Herzberg was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1951.

See also

  • Herzberg bands
  • Collision-induced absorption and emission
  • Methylene (compound)
  • Pseudo Jahn–Teller effect
  • Triatomic hydrogen
  • Vibronic coupling
  • List of German Canadians

References

Further reading

  • Interview of Gerhard Herzberg by Brenda P. Winnewisser on 1989 February 28, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics
  • Interview of Gerhard Herzberg by Brenda P. Winnewisser on 1989 March 2, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics
  • including the Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1971 Spectroscopic Studies of Molecular Structure
  • Canadian Science and Technology Museum Hall of Fame
  • Encyclopædia Britannica entry