Gerhard Herzberg Biography

Gerhard Herzberg is known as the founding father of molecular spectroscopy , the science that observes the interaction of energy with matter to obtain information on the identity and structure of molecules. For his "contributions to the knowledge of the electronic structure and geometry of molecules, especially free radicals," in 1971 Herzberg became the first Canadian to be honored by the Nobel Prize in chemistry. Herzberg also did pioneering work in other scientific fields, including astrophysics, and in association with the National Research Council of Canada, he founded the nation's premier molecular spectroscopy laboratory in 1948.

Herzberg was born December 25, 1904, to Albin and Ella (Biber) Herzberg. Raised and schooled in Hamburg, Germany, Herzberg graduated from the Darmstadt Institute of Technology with a B.S. in engineering in 1927. In 1928 he completed his Ph.D. with a thesis on the interaction of electromagnetic radiation with matter. Herzberg also studied at the University of G(ttingen and the University of Bristol in England, before returning to Darmstadt in 1930 as an instructor.

Move to Canada

In 1935 Herzberg was forced to flee Germany as a result of Hitler's anti-Jewish policies. He subsequently obtained a position as Carnegie guest professor at the University of Saskatchewan, in Canada. Although the school lacked the resources and equipment Herzberg needed for his studies, the atmosphere was welcoming and supportive, and he accomplished a substantial amount of research while also publishing two books. While at Saskatchewan, Herzberg helped establish a graduate laboratory specializing in spectroscopy studies and obtained funding to improve the school's research facilities. Beginning in 1945, Herzberg spent three years as a professor at the Yerkes Observatory of the University of Chicago and then moved back to Canada to set up a spectroscopic research laboratory in Ottawa for the National Research Council. This laboratory was commended by the Swedish Royal Academy of Science, the Nobel Prize awarding institution, as "the foremost center for molecular spectroscopy in the world." Herzberg remained with the Canadian National Research Council for the remainder of his career, becoming the first Distinguished Research Scientist of that organization. He became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1945.

Herzberg's Contributions to Molecular Spectroscopy

Although Herzberg considered himself a physicist, his research in molecular spectroscopy had special significance to chemistry. His research was of great importance as it developed a method of analyzing molecular structure by measuring light transmitted and absorbed by molecules. To do this, Herzberg used the spectroscope , a tool that enabled him to separate a molecule's radiant energy into different parts in the same way light is separated when passed through a prism. When molecules or atoms were passed through a spectroscope, the energy radiating from them separated into distinct lines or spectra, allowing an accurate analysis of their structure. At the time Herzberg began his experiments, spectroscopy, or the study of molecular structure, was a primitive science. Very little was known about atomic spectra when he began his analysis, and Herzberg made major contributions to the field by analyzing complicated spectra obtained from molecules, particularly diatomic molecules such as nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen. While still in Germany, for example, he and a colleague, Werner Heitler, showed that the nitrogen molecule's complex spectrum was much more significant than contemporary scientific belief acknowledged; the particles then believed to comprise nitrogen's nucleus could not account for the intensity of some of the spectral bands. The neutrons responsible for the inconsistency were discovered by English physicist James Chadwick some time later.

Herzberg also discovered several molecular species in outer space and the upper atmosphere while at the Yerkes Observatory. He found elemental hydrogen in some planetary atmospheres. He also discovered new bands, now called Herzberg bands, in the oxygen spectrum. Spectroscopy, however, allowed him to do much more throughout his career than just identify molecules. He accurately measured the electron energy levels in several species, using a combination of quantum mechanical theory and spectroscopy. By developing new experimental procedures, he was able to study short-lived molecules, or free radicals, that appear only briefly during chemical reactions. These chemical intermediates are difficult to study because they do not last long enough to apply other types of tests. Two important examples of his success in this area are the spectra of the methylene radical, CH₂, and the methyl radical, CH₃.

An Avid Researcher and Promoter of Science

Herzberg was also a voluminous writer throughout his career, publishing several hundred papers and many definitive books in the area of molecular and atomic spectra. He wrote in the introduction to his 1971 book, The Spectra and Structure of Simple Free Radicals: An Introduction to Molecular Spectroscopy, "My original plan, forty years ago, was to write a small book on [molecular spectroscopy] of no more than 200 pages. I was unable to prevent this original plan from leading to a three-volume work of over 2000 pages." Herzberg made a clear the distinction between scientific research and technological research. He believed that the former concentrated on finding out more about nature while the latter focused on the applications of science to society. In Herzberg's opinion, it was scientific research that was the true vocation of the scientist, and not technological research, which he believed to be the concern of politicians. He also championed the right of the scientist to work freely, without political or bureaucratic restrictions. Herzberg was awarded many honors in addition to the 1971 Nobel Prize in chemistry, including the Willard Gibbs Medal and the Linus Pauling Medal from the American Chemical Society, the Gold Medal of the Canadian Association of Physicists, and the Royal Medal of the Royal Society of London.

Herzberg married Luise H. Oettinger in 1929; the couple had two children, Paul and Agnes, both of whom chose teaching as their profession. Luise died in 1971 and Herzberg married Monika Tenthoff a year later. Herzberg's hobbies included music and mountainclimbing. He died in 1999.