Gerhard Herzberg
spectroscopist

1971 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of energy states in molecules using spectroscopy.

"You shouldn't do science just to improve wealth -- do science for the sake of human culture and knowledge. There must be some purpose in life that is higher that just surviving."

The Person 

Birthdate December 25, 1904 
Birthplace Hamburg, Germany 
Residence Ottawa, Ontario 
Office Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa

Family Members 
  ¥ Father Albin H. Herzberg 
  ¥ Mother Ella (Biber) 
  ¥ Children Paul and Agnes by first wife Luise, also 
     spectroscopist. 
  ¥ Spouse Second wife Monika Tenthoff

Title Distinguished Research Scientist

Status Working on the study of molecular ions

Degrees 
  ¥ Dipl. Ing. 1927, Darmstadt Institute of Technology 
  ¥ Dr. Ing. 1828, as above 
  ¥ Privatdozent (postDoctorate) 1928-29, U. of 
     Goettingen Hon. 
  ¥ Honorary degrees include Oxford, Cambridge and 
     Chicago

Awards 
  ¥ Medaille de L'Universite de Liege 1950
  ¥ Henry Marshall Tory Medal, Royal Society of Canada 
     1953 
  ¥ Joy Kissen Mookerjee Gold Medal, Indian Assn. for 
     the Cultivation of Science 1954 
  ¥ Gold Medal, Canadian Association of Physicists 1957
  ¥ Medal of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy 1959
  ¥ Medaille de l'Universite de Liege (silver) 1960
  ¥ Medaille de l'Universite de Bruxelles 1960
  ¥ Pittsburgh Spectroscopy Award, Spectroscopy 
     Society of Pittsburgh 1962
  ¥ Frederic Ives Medal, Optical society of America 1964
  ¥ Willard Gibbs Medal, American Chemical Society 
     1969
  ¥ Gold Medal, Professional Institute of the Public 
     Service of Canada 1969
  ¥ Faraday Medal, Chemical Society of London 1970
  ¥ Royal Medal, Royal Society of London 1971
  ¥ Linus Pauling Medal, American Chemical Society 
     1971
  ¥ Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Swedish Royal Academy of 
     Sciences 1971
  ¥ Chemical Institute of Canada Medal 1972
  ¥ Madison Marshall Award, American Chemical Society 
     (North Alabama Section) 1974
  ¥ Earle K. Plyler prize, American Physical Society 1985
  ¥ Jan Marcus Marci Memorial Medal, Czechoslovak 
     Spectroscopy Society 1987
  ¥ Minor Planet 3316=1984 CN1 officially named 
     "Herzberg" 1987

Mentor Hans Rau

Character jovial, modest

Favourite Music Mozart quartet for Flute, Violin, Viola, and Cello

Other Interests 
  ¥ Singing
  ¥ Mountain hiking

The Story 

Gerhard Herzberg was feeling a bit overwhelmed bent over the piles of paper on his big desk. As Director of pure physics at Canada's National Research Council, he was very busy in the Fall of 1959. Jack Shoesmith his research technician had come into the sun filled office. He walked up to the tall windows overlooking the Ottawa River and said, "I have an interesting spectrum to show you."

Herzberg thought of all the meetings and conferences he had to organize, the paper he was writing, presentations he was preparing and the book he was trying to finish (the third volume of his series "Molecular Spectra and Molecular Structure"). He didn't have time for this.

"It's good," said Jack.

Reluctantly, Herzberg got up from his chair and followed the young technician down a flight of stairs to the lab below. It was a large high dimly lit room smelling of ammonia, ozone and hot electric wiring. They walked past the special spectrograph that Shoesmith had built--a long steel tube about 50cm high and 3m long. Vacuum tubes and wires snaked around the base of the apparatus, but the pumps and electricity were turned off. The big room was quiet except for a murmuring crowd that had gathered in the corner.

Herzberg hurried over to see what they were looking at. A long thin strip of glass lay on a viewing screen with a seemingly random pattern of vertical lines blackening its surface--a spectrogram. Recognizing it at once, Herzberg picked it up for a closer look. Instantly he shouted, "That's it!" and broke out laughing. "Eighteen years," he thought. "I've been looking for you for eighteen years."

What Herzberg held that day was the first spectrogram of a simple chemical called methylene--a molecule having a carbon with a hydrogen on either side, written CH2. What was special about this? CH2 is a very unstable compound, a "free radical", very reactive; a fleeting transition species in many chemical reactions. But its spectrum was the key to proving many theories of chemical structure. In addition, by training their spectrographs on the stars scientists could use the new spectrum to identify CH2 in nebulae and other interstellar objects.

That particular spectrum Herzberg was looking at in the Fall of 1959 eventually resulted in a Nobel prize in 1972.

History

As a twelve year old in Hamburg, Herzberg and a friend named Alfred Schulz made a home-made telescope. They patiently ground the lenses, and set them in hand-made mounts in a metal tube. On clear nights they used to take the streetcar to the city park and set it up to look at the moon and planets.

Herzberg's mother was a vegetarian, and Herzberg has always been one himself.

The Science 

1. A spectrogram is created with a machine called a spectrograph. It works by focusing a beam of light with a lens, then passing it through a prism to break it into its component parts. The light source is created by burning or photolysing a compound that you wish to investigate.

2. A spectrogram is a plate made of glass coated with photographic chemicals. When they are developed the plates have dark vertical lines. By measuring the spacing and thickness of the lines and groups of lines you can apply mathematical formulas and determine some of the energy states of the molecules in the light source.

3. The distance between the larger lines in the spectrum is proportional to the molecule's "vibrational" energy. The small groups clustered around the major lines represent the "rotational" energy of the molecule. These lines and their mathematical relationships are called "Balmer" lines after the Swiss high-school teacher who figured them out in 1885.

4. The molecule CH2 or Methylene. Methylene is a "free radical" which means it has an extra pair of electrons that it tries to share with another molecule.

Activity 

You need a revolving chair or stool

Sit in the revolving chair or stool. Now, holding your arms stretched out at your sides, spin yourself around, or have someone else spin you. As you spin, quickly bring your arms in. You should notice a change in your rate of rotation. Is it faster or slower? This change you feel is caused by the conservation of angular momentum, a principle of physics that affects the rotational energy in a molecule when electrons fall from higher orbital levels to lower ones.

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