Herzberg, Gerhard

Gerhard Herzberg, (born Dec. 25, 1904, Hamburg, Ger.—died March 3, 1999, Ottawa, Ont., Can.), Canadian physicist and winner of the 1971 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work in determining the electronic structure and geometry of molecules, especially free radicals—groups of atoms that contain odd numbers of electrons. His work provided the foundation for molecular spectroscopy.

Herzberg became Privatdozent (unsalaried lecturer) at the Darmstadt Institute of Technology in 1930 but fled Nazi Germany in 1935 and obtained a position with the University of Saskatchewan. From 1945 to 1948 he worked at the University of Chicago’s Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, after which he returned to Canada, where he joined the National Research Council, Ottawa.

Herzberg’s spectroscopic studies not only provided experimental results of prime importance to physical chemistry and quantum mechanics but also helped stimulate a resurgence of investigations into the chemical reactions of gases. He devoted much of his research to diatomic molecules, in particular the most common ones—hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon monoxide. He discovered the spectra of certain free radicals that are intermediate stages in numerous chemical reactions, and he was the first to identify the spectra of certain radicals in interstellar gas. Herzberg also contributed much spectrographic information on the atmospheres of the outer planets and the stars. His most important works are Atomspektren und Atomstruktur (1936; Atomic Spectra and Atomic Structure) and a long-standing reference work, the four-volume Molecular Spectra and Molecular Structure (1939–79).