Gerhard Herzberg

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gerhard Herzberg, London 1952

Gerhard Herzberg , PC , CC (born December 25, 1904 in Hamburg ; † March 3, 1999 in Ottawa , Canada ) was a German-Canadian chemist and physicist . He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1971 .

Life

Gerhard Herzberg was a student at the Johanneum School of Scholars in Hamburg. He studied from 1924 to 1928 at the Technical University of Darmstadt , where he in 1928 with a thesis about the afterglow of nitrogen and oxygen and the structure of the negative nitrogen gangs to Dr.-Ing. received his doctorate . He then worked in Göttingen from 1928 to 1929 and in Bristol from 1929 to 1930 . From 1930 to 1935 he was Hans Rau's second assistant and private lecturer at the TH Darmstadt.

In 1935, Herzberg emigrated to Canada because the Ministry of Education had revoked his teaching license due to his marriage to the doctorate physicist Luise Oettinger, who was of Jewish descent, and had also been informed that his contract of employment at the Technical University of Darmstadt would not be extended. At the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon , he first found a job as a visiting professor, and after just three months he got a permanent position as a research professor of physics . In 1945 he became a Canadian citizen.

In 1945 Herzberg received a call to the Yerkes Observatory of the University of Chicago on a professorship for spectroscopy , which he held until 1949. From 1948 he worked again in Canada , at the National Research Council in Ottawa . Herzberg was also a longstanding honorary member of the advisory board of the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching . In 1971 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry , "for his contributions to the knowledge of the electronic structure and geometry of molecules, especially of free radicals ".

By observing diatomic molecules, Herzberg was able to determine exact values ​​for dissociation and ionization energies . Together with the Nobel Prize winners Ronald George Wreyford Norrish and George Porter , he was involved in the development of flashlight spectroscopy. He followed the research of unstable particles and the study of the structure of polyatomic molecules with particular interest . He also contributed his knowledge to space research. He was able to detect hydrogen boron and hydrocarbons in comets. In 1959 he demonstrated the existence of methylene , the simplest carbene , using spectroscopic methods.

In retrospect, Herzberg is also known for a quote about early references to the cosmic background radiation , like others he did not recognize the scope of the discovery at the time. In his book Spectra of diatomic molecules from 1950 he wrote that the temperature of the rotational movement of CN molecules in interstellar space was 2.3 Kelvin, but this would only have a very limited meaning . He alludes to observations made by Andrew McKellar in 1940/41.

The high Canadian research award Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering was named in his honor.

Awards

Publications

  • Atomic Spectra and Structure. 1936.
  • Molecular spectra and structure. 1939.
  • The spectra and structures of simple free radicals: An introduction to molecular spectroscopy. Dover Books, New York, 1971, ISBN 048665821X .
  • Molecular Spectra and Molecular Structure: I. Spectra of Diatomic Molecules. Krieger, 1989, ISBN 0894642685
  • Molecular Spectra and Molecular Structure: II. Infrared and Raman Spectra of Polyatomic Molecules. Krieger, 1989, ISBN 0894642693
  • Molecular Spectra and Molecular Structure: III. Electronic Spectra and Electronic Structure of Polyatomic Molecules. Krieger, 1989, ISBN 0894642707
  • Molecular Spectra and Molecular Structure: IV. Constants of Diatomic Molecules . KP Huber and G. Herzberg, Van nostrand Reinhold company, New York, 1979, ISBN 0-442233949 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Gerhard Herzberg  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Herzberg Molecular spectra and molecular structure , Volume 1, 1950, p. 496, From the intensity ratio of the CN lines with K = 0 and K = 1 a rotational temperature of 2.3 K follows, which has of course only a very restricted meaning .
  2. ^ Ned Wright CMB , UCLA . See also K. Menten, Famous last quotes
  3. ↑ Member History: Gerhard Herzberg. American Philosophical Society, accessed September 29, 2018 .
  4. ^ "Stumbling blocks" for scientists dismissed under National Socialism , in: Informationsdienst Wissenschaft from March 15, 2010, accessed on March 18, 2010
personal data
SURNAME Herzberg, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Canadian chemist and physicist
DATE OF BIRTH December 25, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH March 3, 1999
Place of death Ottawa , Canada