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Prof. Dr. Michael Schmitt |
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Gerhard HerzbergGerhard Herzberg was
born in Hamburg
(Germany) December 25 1904 as son to Albin H. Herzberg and Ella Biber.
He received his PhD at the Technical University Darmstadt (Technischen
Hochschule Darmstadt) where he was graduated in 1928 as Dr. Ing.
Afterwards he worked in Göttingen (1928-1929) with James Franck
and Max
Born and in Bristol (1929-1930) with John Lennard-Jones, before
returning to Damstadt (1930-1935) where he was appointed as lecturer
(Privatdozent) in 1930. In 1935 Herzberg was urged to leave
Nazi-Germany, since the Ministry of Education suspended his Venia Legendi due to being married
with Luise Oettinger, a german physicist who was of jewish decendence.
Unlike other famous german physicists (maybe the most famous amongst
them was Werner Heisenberg), Herzberg defied the influence of the Nazis
and emigrated with Luise to Canada. At the University of Saskatchewan
in Saskatoon he was filled a position as guest professor for three
months, after which this position was changed to that of a Research
Professor.
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In 1945 Herzberg received the Canadian
citizenship. From 1945 to 1949 he was offered the position as professor
of spectroscopy at the Yerkes-Observatory of the University of Chicago.
Starting with 1948 he was Director of the Division of Pure Physics at
the National Research Council of Canada. 1971 Gerhard Herzberg received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his contributions to the knowledge of electronic structure and geometry of molecules, particularly free radicals". Gerhard Herzberg shows us by his example, that scientific excellence and social responsibility by no way exclude each other. |
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