Gerhard Herzberg - Early Life and Family

Early Life and Family

Herzberg was born in Hamburg, Germany on December 25, 1904 to Albin H. Herzberg and Ella Biber. He had an older brother, Walter, who was born in January 1904. Herzberg started Vorschule (elementary school) late, after contracting measles. His father died in 1914, at 43 years of age, after having suffered from dropsy and complications due to an earlier heart condition. Herzberg graduated Vorschule shortly after his father's death.

Initially, Herzberg considered a career in astronomy, but his application to the Hamburg Observatory was returned advising him not to pursue a career in the field without private financial support. After completing high school, Herzberg continued his education at Darmstadt University of Technology with the help of a private scholarship. Herzberg completed his Dr.Ing. degree under Henri Rau in 1928.

• 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
• 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
• 1966–7 President of the Royal Society of Canada
• 1968 Companion of the Order of Canada
• 1968 George Fischer 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"
• 1971 Royal Medal from Royal Society of London
• 1973-1980 Chancellor of Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada)
• 1992 Sworn into the Queen's Privy Council for Canada
• 1999 Died aged 94