Who is gerhard herzberg

In the early s, when young Gerhard Herzberg chose astronomy as his preferred profession, his application to Germany's Hamburg Observatory came back with the advice that "there is no point in thinking of a career in astronomy unless one has private means of support. It was the only "credential" Herzberg lacked. His support came from his mother, widowed when Herzberg was 10 years old.

Herzberg eventually emigrated to Wyoming for a housekeeper's position that enabled her to send small amounts back to her two sons in Germany.

The young Herzberg endured those lean and lonely years by immersing himself in mathematics, chemistry and physics. These interests brought him to the attention of a superb high school physics teacher, Herr Hillers, who was in touch with the revolutionary theories then driving physics.

He introduced Herzberg to the ideas of such scientists as the great Danish physicist Niels Bohr, whose atomic theories were laying the foundation for quantum mechanics. Assisted by a private scholarship from a German industrialist, Herzberg entered the Technical University at Darmstadt in By , the year-old Herzberg had completed his Doctor of Engineering Physics degree and published 12 papers in atomic and molecular physics.

He then spent a second postdoctoral year at the University of Bristol, where he investigated the electronic structure of diatomic molecules. In , Herzberg returned to Darmstadt to be a "Privatdozent," which allowed him to lecture without pay, to earn a small salary in return for managing undergraduate research labs, and to carry out his own research. During the next five years, he concentrated on spectroscopy, collaborating with other young scientists, including Edward Teller, with whom he published a major paper on vibrational structures of electronic transitions in polyatomic molecules.

In , Herzberg's group included John W. Spinks, a visiting scientist from Saskatoon, a place Herzberg had never heard of, but was soon to know well.

Herzberg was notified that he would be dismissed because his wife was Jewish, and he realized they would have to leave Nazi Germany. In , he was hired as a lecturer and assistant to the head of the physics department at the Darmstadt Institute of Technology.

He built a large spectroscopic laboratory and supervised the research of several students and guest researchers. In , Herzberg left Nazi Germany. Three months later, he became professor in the physics department, a position he occupied for the next six years. His work focused mainly on molecular spectroscopy; that is, on the analysis of molecular structure.

More specifically, Herzberg concentrated on the detection and the nature of free radicals. Free radicals are intermediary molecules in chemical reactions that only exist for several millionths of a second in the laboratory, but much longer in space. Spinks a chemist who visited and became closely acquainted with Herzberg in Darmstadt and Walter C. From to Herzberg established himself at the University of Saskatchewan, where he continued his research on molecular and atomic spectroscopy, publishing three new books NSERC.

Scientists describe free radicals as chemical species that have an unpaired electron in the outer valence shell Winnewisser, Free radicals can be found as intermediates in a variety of chemical reactions Herschbach, Gerhard Herzberg had two children and passed away on March 3 rd , at the age of 94 Herschbach, Aside from his numerous scientific achievements, Herzberg is remembered for his love of music and for his advocacy for basic science research and good science policy Stoicheff, Throughout his life he developed a passion for music, learning to play the violin in his youth and then taking singing lessons later on as an adult— even holding concerts for his family and friends Stoicheff, !

In addition, he devoted many hours to advocating and promoting the value of basic and pure science research during a time of intense debate on science policy and what the focus of scientific research in Canada should be Stoicheff, Herschbach, Dudley. Herzberg, Gerhard.