Gerhard Herzberg

Gerhard Heinrich Friedrich Otto Julius Herzberg,

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.^[3]

Education and career

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Initially, Herzberg considered a career in

• 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^[10]
• 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^[10]
• 1965 Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences^[11]
• 1966–7 President of the Royal Society of Canada
• 1968 Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences^[12]
• 1968 Companion of the Order of Canada^[10]
• 1968 George Fisher Baker Non-Resident Lecturer in Chemistry at Cornell University (Ithaca, United States)
• 1969 Willard Gibbs Award
• 1969 Distinguished Research Scientist in the recombined Division of Physics, at the
  National Research Council of Canada
• 1970 Lecturer of the Chemical Society of London, receives Faraday Medal
• 1971 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his contributions to the knowledge of electronic structure and geometry of molecules, particularly free radicals"^[13][10]
• 1971 Royal Medal from Royal Society of London^[10]
• 1972 Member of the American Philosophical Society^[14]
• 1973-1980 Chancellor of Carleton University (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)
• 1981 Founding member of the World Cultural Council.^[15]
• 1992 Sworn into the
  Queen's Privy Council for Canada^[10]
• 1999 Died aged 94

Herzberg's most significant award was the 1971 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which he was awarded "for his contributions to the knowledge of electronic structure and geometry of molecules, particularly free radicals".^[2] During the presentation speech, it was noted that at the time of the award, Herzberg was "generally considered to be the world's foremost molecular spectroscopist."^[16]

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

The main building of John Abbott College in Montreal is named after him. Carleton University named the Herzberg Laboratories building after him. A public park in the College Park neighbourhood of Saskatoon also bears his name.

Books and publications

Herzberg authored some classic works in the field of spectroscopy, including Atomic Spectra and Atomic Structure and the encyclopaedic four volume work: Molecular Spectra and Molecular Structure, which is often called the spectroscopist's bible.^[4] The three volumes of Molecular Spectra and Molecular Structure were re-issued by Krieger in 1989, including extensive new footnotes by Herzberg. Volume IV of the series, "Constants of diatomic molecules" is purely a reference work, a compendium of known spectroscopic constants (and therefore a bibliography of molecular spectroscopy) of diatomic molecules up until 1978.

• Atomic Spectra and Atomic Structure. (Dover Books, New York, 2010,
  ISBN 0-486-60115-3
  )
• The spectra and structures of simple free radicals: An introduction to molecular spectroscopy. (Dover Books, New York, 1971,
  ISBN 0-486-65821-X
  ).
• Molecular Spectra and Molecular Structure: I. Spectra of Diatomic Molecules. (Krieger, 1989,
  ISBN 0-89464-268-5
  )
• Molecular Spectra and Molecular Structure: II. Infrared and Raman Spectra of Polyatomic Molecules. (Krieger, 1989,
  ISBN 0-89464-269-3
  )
• Molecular Spectra and Molecular Structure: III. Electronic Spectra and Electronic Structure of Polyatomic Molecules. (Krieger, 1989,
  ISBN 0-89464-270-7
  )
• ISBN 0-442-23394-9
  ).

There are Gerhard Herzberg fonds at Library and Archives Canada and at National Research Council Canada.^[17][18]

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

• Gerhard Herzberg on Nobelprize.org including the Nobel Lecture, December 11, 1971 Spectroscopic Studies of Molecular Structure
• Canadian Science and Technology Museum Hall of Fame
• Encyclopædia Britannica entry
• Order of Canada citation