Gerhard herzberg biography motivations

When Spinks heard from Herzberg regarding his predicament, he first inquired about a position at the University of Toronto, which had a distinguished spectroscopy laboratory. When Spinks learned that displaced German scholars were eligible for a two-year fellowship from the Carnegie Corporation, he reached out to Dr. Walter Murray, the President of the University of Saskatchewan and recommended Herzberg for a position supported by the grant.

Throughout his career, he often mentioned the importance of the opportunities he was given at the University of Saskatchewan and their role in his scientific pursuits. First of all, while at the University of Saskatchewan I had the full and understanding support of successive Presidents and of the Faculty of the University who, under very stringent conditions, did their utmost to make it possible for me to proceed with my scientific work.

Luise Herzberg Perhaps no one supported Gerhard Herzberg and his pursuit of science as much as his wife Luise, herself a remarkably gifted physicist and astronomer with her own scientific career. She co-authored several papers with him, working alongside him on various projects, and eventually took on most of the household and parental responsibilities that came with raising their two children, Paul and Agnes.

Luise passed away in June, , only a few months before Herzberg was awarded the Nobel Prize. I felt strong pangs of regret that she did not live to see the culmination of their lives together. She studied mathematics, science, and multiple foreign languages while in high school. In , Luise attended the Technische Hochschule in Munich for a degree in mechanical engineering.

It was very difficult for German scientists to find work outside Germany; thousands of them were leaving to escape the Nazis and they were all looking for jobs at the same time. Fortunately, before he left, Herzberg was able to buy some excellent German spectroscopic equipment to take with him to Saskatoon. Leaving Germany was very painful for the Herzbergs and they had no idea what they would find in Saskatoon.

But Saskatchewan turned out to be a good experience for them, although it was very different from Germany. During the 10 years they lived there, Herzberg taught physics and wrote his famous book Molecular Spectra. His children were born in Saskatoon. During this time he made his Nobel Prize-winning discoveries in molecular spectroscopy. He worked at the National Research Council as a distinguished research scientist until his death at the age of 94 on March 4, The Science Herzberg was a physicist, but his discoveries are important to chemists because they involve the internal geometry and energy states of molecules.

Remember: When Herzberg was born, the concept of an electron was just catching on. When he graduated from university, people had yet to discover how atoms combined to form molecules.

Gerhard herzberg biography motivations

It was all new theory. Very little had been proven. To try to prove all these exciting ideas, Herzberg became a pioneer in the field of molecular spectroscopy, the study of how atoms and molecules emit or absorb light. The following year, he became the director of this division and, in , the director of the Division of Fundamental Physics.

In , the Scientific Council of the Institute of Astrophysics recognized him as an outstanding research scientist. In , he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his contributions to the understanding of electronic structure and molecular structure, especially of free radicals. In his presentation at the Nobel ceremony, Stig Claesson, a member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences, said, "Herzberg's truly elegant experimental studies, together with their theoretical interpretation, made a significant contribution to the development of quantum mechanics, which was decisive for the rapid development of molecular spectroscopy.

This was brilliantly demonstrated in Herzberg's innovative research with free radicals. Knowledge of their properties is of fundamental importance for understanding chemical processes. In interstellar gas and dust clouds, the existence of ordinary molecules is impossible due to the continuous bombardment of atoms by cosmic particles, intense ultraviolet, X-ray, and gamma radiation, causing their excitation.

When excited atoms meet, they form new structures that also remain in an excited state and, in turn, exist as free radicals. 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 and Ella Biber. Herzberg graduated Vorschule shortly after his father's death.