Gerhard Herzberg

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The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1971 Gerhard Herzberg Gerhard Herzberg Born: 25 December 1904, Hamburg, Germany Died: 3 March 1999, Ottawa, Canada Affiliation at the time of the award: National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Canada Prize motivation: "for his contributions to the knowledge of electronic structure and geometry of molecules, particularly free radicals" Field: Physical chemistry, molecular structures Information taken from The Official Website of the Nobel Prize nobelprize.org “…series of bands with complicated fine structure in the red and photographic infrared… This spectrum was analysed as that of an asymmetric top…” (1) Geometrical structure of CH2 in the three lowest states (1) Spectra and quotes from the Nobel Lecture by G. Herzberg The Nobel Prize in Physics 1918 Max Planck Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck Born: 23 April 1858, Kiel, Schleswig (now Germany) Died: 4 October 1947, Goettingen, West Germany Affiliation at the time of the award: Berlin University,Berlin, Germany Prize motivation: "in recognition of the services he rendered to the advancement of Physics by his discovery of energy quanta" Field: Quantum mechanics Max Planck received his Nobel Prize one year later, in 1919. Information taken from The Official Website of the Nobel Prize nobelprize.org The Nobel Prize in Physics 1922 Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr Born: 7 October 1885, Copenhagen, Denmark Died: 18 November 1962, Copenhagen, Denmark Affiliation at the time of the award: Copenhagen University, Copenhagen, Denmark Prize motivation: "for his services in the investigation of the structure of atoms and of the radiation emanating from them" Field: Theoretical nuclear physics Information taken from The Official Website of the Nobel Prize nobelprize.org The Nobel Prize in Physics 1921 Albert Einstein Albert Einstein Born: 14 March 1879, Ulm, Germany Died: 18 April 1955, Princeton, NJ, USA Affiliation at the time of the award: Kaiser- Wilhelm-Institut (now Max-Planck-Institut) für Physik, Berlin, Germany Prize motivation: "for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect" Field: Theoretical physics Albert Einstein received his Nobel Prize one year later, in 1922 Information taken from The Official Website of the Nobel Prize nobelprize.org The electromagnetic spectrum From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum Radiation Laws de.wikipedia.org Planck’s law Strahlungsspektren eines «schwarzen Körpers» www.infratec.de de.wikipedia.org Planck’s law.

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The Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry
THE BECKMAN CENTER FOR THE HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY GERHARD HERZBERG Transcript of an Interview Conducted by M. Christine King at The National Research Council of Canada on 5 May 1986 This interview has been designated as Free Access. One may view, quote from, cite, or reproduce the oral history with the permission of CHF. Please note: Users citing this interview for purposes of publication are obliged under the terms of the Chemical Heritage Foundation Oral History Program to credit CHF using the format below: Gerhard Herzberg, interview by M. Christine King at The National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Canada, 5 May 1986 (Philadelphia: Chemical Heritage Foundation, Oral History Transcript # 0023). Chemical Heritage Foundation Oral History Program 315 Chestnut Street Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106 The Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) serves the community of the chemical and molecular sciences, and the wider public, by treasuring the past, educating the present, and inspiring the future. CHF maintains a world-class collection of materials that document the history and heritage of the chemical and molecular sciences, technologies, and industries; encourages research in CHF collections; and carries out a program of outreach and interpretation in order to advance an understanding of the role of the chemical and molecular sciences, technologies, and industries in shaping society. GERHARD HERZBERG 1904 Born in Hamburg, Germany on 25 December Education 1928 Dr. Ing., Darmstadt Technische Universität Professional Experience 1928-1929 Post-doctoral
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NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES ROBERT SANDERSON MULLIKEN 1896–1986 A Biographical Memoir by R. STEPHEN BERRY Biographical Memoirs, VOLUME 78 PUBLISHED 2000 BY THE NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS WASHINGTON, D.C. Photo credit: Photo by Harris & Ewing, Washington, D.C. ROBERT SANDERSON MULLIKEN June 7, 1896-October 31, 1986 BY R. STEPHEN BERRY OBERT S. MULLIKEN WAS a quiet, soft-spoken man, yet so R single-minded and determined in his devotion to under- standing molecules that he came to be called “Mr. Molecule.” If any single person’s ideas and teachings dominated the development of our understanding of molecular structure and spectra, it surely was Robert Mulliken. From the begin- ning of his career as an independent scientist in the mid- 1920s until he published his last scientific papers in the early 1980s, he guided an entire field through his penetrat- ing solutions of outstanding puzzles, his identification (or discovery) and analysis of the new major problems ripe for study, and his creation of a school—the Laboratory of Molecular Structure and Spectroscopy or LMSS at the University of Chicago, during its existence the most impor- tant center in the world for the study of molecules. Robert’s background led him naturally into academic sci- ence. He was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, in a house built by his great-grandfather in about 1798. His father, Samuel Parsons Mulliken, was a professor of chemistry at MIT, which made him a daily commuter between Newburyport and Boston. Samuel Mulliken and his child- hood friend and later MIT colleague Arthur A. Noyes were 3 4 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS strong influences stirring Robert’s interests in science.
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Henry Taube Papers SC0731SC0731
http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt329035mg No online items Guide to the Henry Taube Papers SC0731SC0731 Stanford University Archives staff Department of Special Collections and University Archives October 2010 Green Library 557 Escondido Mall Stanford 94305-6064 [email protected] URL: http://library.stanford.edu/spc Note This encoded finding aid is compliant with Stanford EAD Best Practice Guidelines, Version 1.0. Guide to the Henry Taube Papers SC073117755 1 SC0731SC0731 Language of Material: English Contributing Institution: Department of Special Collections and University Archives Title: Henry Taube papers Creator: Taube, Henry Identifier/Call Number: SC0731 Identifier/Call Number: 17755 Physical Description: 65.25 Linear Feet(56 boxes) Date (inclusive): 1941-2003 Abstract: Collection pertains to his teaching and research, primarily while at Stanford University, and includes grant files, articles and papers, reprints, class files, correspondence, travel records, and biographical materials. Information about Access This collection is open for research; materials must be requested at least 48 hours in advance of intended use. Ownership & Copyright All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California 94304-6064. Consent is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/pubserv/permissions.html. Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials.
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Robert Mulliken
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES ROBERT SANDERSON MULLIKEN 1896–1986 A Biographical Memoir by R. STEPHEN BERRY Biographical Memoirs, VOLUME 78 PUBLISHED 2000 BY THE NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS WASHINGTON, D.C. Photo credit: Photo by Harris & Ewing, Washington, D.C. ROBERT SANDERSON MULLIKEN June 7, 1896-October 31, 1986 BY R. STEPHEN BERRY OBERT S. MULLIKEN WAS a quiet, soft-spoken man, yet so R single-minded and determined in his devotion to under- standing molecules that he came to be called “Mr. Molecule.” If any single person’s ideas and teachings dominated the development of our understanding of molecular structure and spectra, it surely was Robert Mulliken. From the begin- ning of his career as an independent scientist in the mid- 1920s until he published his last scientific papers in the early 1980s, he guided an entire field through his penetrat- ing solutions of outstanding puzzles, his identification (or discovery) and analysis of the new major problems ripe for study, and his creation of a school—the Laboratory of Molecular Structure and Spectroscopy or LMSS at the University of Chicago, during its existence the most impor- tant center in the world for the study of molecules. Robert’s background led him naturally into academic sci- ence. He was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, in a house built by his great-grandfather in about 1798. His father, Samuel Parsons Mulliken, was a professor of chemistry at MIT, which made him a daily commuter between Newburyport and Boston. Samuel Mulliken and his child- hood friend and later MIT colleague Arthur A. Noyes were 3 4 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS strong influences stirring Robert’s interests in science.
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Henry Taube by J
Chemical Education Today Nobel Centennial Essays A Century of Chemical Dynamics Traced through the Nobel Prizes W 1983: Henry Taube by J. Van Houten Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1983 Photo by Rudy Baum Henry Taube (1915– ) for his work on the mechanisms of electron transfer Henry Taube, shown on reactions, especially in metal complexes the cover of C&E News. This is the eighth in a series of essays (1) written in com- Reprinted with permis- memoration of the centennial of the Nobel Prize, examin- sion from Chemical & ing the history of chemical dynamics in the 20th century.W Engineering News, May 21, 1984. © As his Nobel citation (2) states, Henry Taube studied elec- Copyright 1984 Ameri- tron transfer reactions of transition metal complexes. The can Chemical Society. Nobel Prize to Taube came exactly seventy years after it was awarded to Alfred Werner (3) for developing the structural chemistry of inorganic transition metal complexes. During the entire 20th century, Taube and Werner are the only in- to Werner’s. His early mechanistic studies relied heavily on organic transition metal chemists to win a Nobel Prize.1 In isotope tracer techniques developed by George de Hevesy, the fact, many of the complexes that Taube studied were first 1943 Nobel Laureate (1d). The second of the 100 references prepared or characterized by Werner. in Taube’s Nobel lecture (6) is to a 1920 paper where de Taube’s citation (2) concludes with the statement: “There Hevesy used naturally occurring lead isotopes to follow the is no doubt that Henry Taube is one of the most creative exchange reaction between Pb2+ and Pb4+ (7).
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Walter Elsasser in Mind
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES W A L T E R M . E LSASSER 1904—1991 A Biographical Memoir by H A R R Y RU BIN Any opinions expressed in this memoir are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Academy of Sciences. Biographical Memoir COPYRIGHT 1995 NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS WASHINGTON D.C. WALTER M. ELSASSER March 20, 1904–October 14, 1991 BY HARRY RUBIN ALTER ELSASSER WAS TRAINED as a theoretical physicist Wand made several important contributions to funda- mental problems of atomic physics, including interpreta- tion of the experiments on electron scattering by Davisson and Germer as an effect of de Broglie’s electron waves and recognition of the shell structure of atomic nuclei. Circum- stances later turned his interests to geophysics, where he had important insights about the radiative transfer of heat in the atmosphere and fathered the generally accepted dy- namo theory of the earth’s magnetism. He devoted a major part of the last fifty years of his life to developing a theory of organisms, concentrating on the basic features that dis- tinguish between living and inanimate matter, and he pro- duced four books on the subject. While his contribution to biology was not widely acknowledged, he felt it would even- tually be seen as his major scientific achievement. BACKGROUND AND YOUTH Walter was born in Mannheim, Germany, the older of two children of Maurice and Johanna Elsasser. His sister, Maria, was three years younger than him. His grandparents were prosperous Jewish merchants, but his father was a law- 103 104 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS yer who was caught up in the great wave of assimilation and both parents became nonpracticing Protestants.
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DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY CORNELL UNIVERSITY ITHACA, NEW YORK 14850 NE WSL. E: T TEH Issue No. 2 August 1968 The response to the first issue of the Chemistry Department Newsletter was extremely gratifying and well worth the effort put into it. As promised, the Newsletter will come out twice a year, each issue about a month before the national American Chemical Society meetings. A number of "lost11 names turned up as a result of the first issue and also some very interesting letters, parts of which have led to stories in Lauby's Recollections column. It .even generated visits by some of you. I hope all of this keeps up; we'd like to hear from and see more of you. Another result of the first Newsletter was the tremendous attendance at the Cornell Social Hour at the San Francisco meeting. While other social hours have been well attended, the one in San Francisco was pleasantly crowded. It made for renewal of many old friendships and the making of some new ones. We're hoping for an even bigger and better one at the Atlantic City meeting. There the Cornell Social Hour is scheduled for 5:30, Tuesday afternoon, September 10, in the Diamond Jim Brady Room of the Shelburne Hotel. The plans for Baker renovation are moving rapidly. The reno- vation has gone out for bid and bids are due back at about the time this Newsletter will be mailed. The contract should be signed shortly thereafter. The actual renovation will start in late August or very early September.
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Special Collections of the University of Miami Libraries ASM0466 Kursunoglu, Behram Papers Container List
Special Collections of the University of Miami Libraries ASM0466 Kursunoglu, Behram Papers Container List Box Title or No. Description 1 Papers and Bound Periodicals 1967-1978 2 Videocassettes 3 Videocassettes 4 Videocassettes 5 Videocassettes 6 Videocassettes 7 Videocassettes 8 Audiocassettes 9 Documents pertaining to visiting professors A-E 10 Documents pertaining to visiting professors F-On 11 Documents pertaining to visiting professors Op-Sn 12 Documents pertaining to visiting professors St-Z The following is a list of visiting professors that are represented in the collection: * = Nobel Laureate The numbers after the names signify the number of files. *Nikolai Basov, Russian Academy of Sciences, Lebedev Institute *Hans A. Bethe, Cornell University Gregory Breit, Yale University Nikolai Bogolubov, Soviet Academy of Sciences, Moscow University * Walter H. Brattain, Columbia University Special Collections of the University of Miami Libraries ASM0466 Kursunoglu, Behram Papers Container List Box Title or No. Description Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Cambridge University H.B.G. Casimir, Phillips, Eindhoven, Netherlands Britton Chance, University of Pennsylvania *Leon Cooper, Brown University Jean Couture, Former Sec. of Energy for France *Francis H.C. Crick, Salk Institute Richard Dalitz, Oxford University *Hans G. Dehmelt, University of Washington *Max Delbruck, of California Tech. *P.A.M. Dirac (16), Cambridge University Freeman Dyson (2), Institute For Advanced Studies, Princeton *John C. Eccles, University of Buffalo *Gerald Edelman, Rockefeller University, NY *Manfred Eigen, Max Planck Institute Göttingen *Albert . Einstein (2), Institute For Advance Studies, Princeton *Richard Feynman, of California Tech. *Paul Flory, Stanford University *Murray Gell-Mann, of CaliforniaTech. *Dona1d Glaser, Berkeley, UniversityCa1. Thomas Gold, Cornell University Special Collections of the University of Miami Libraries ASM0466 Kursunoglu, Behram Papers Container List Box Title or No.
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Gerhard Herzberg (1904-) D the Yçiurigassistant Burst Excitedly Into the Office of the Director of Pure Physics at the National Research Counal-In Ottawa
Gerhard Herzberg (1904-) d The yçiurigassistant burst excitedly into the office of the Director of Pure Physics at the National Research Counal-in Ottawa. Dr.Gerhard Herzberg looked up from his desk with some annoyance. Herzberg thbught of all the meetings and conferences he had to Organize, the paper he was writing, the presentations he was preparing and the book on Molecular spectra he was trying to finish. He didn't have time for this. The young technician was insistent. °You must corne and see this," he said, "it's good." Reluctantly, He rzberg got up from his chair and followed the man down a flight of stairs into a large dimly-lit room smelling of ammônia, ozone and hot electric wiring. They walked past strange equipment surrounded by vacuum tubes, pumps and snaking wires. • The big room was quiet except for a murenuting crciwd 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. He recognized it instantly, shouting, "That's itr and broke out laughing. "Eighteen years. I've been looking for you for eighteen years." Dr. Herzberg had finally discoveréd the first spectrogram of methylene, a simple unstable chemical compound called a "free radical". It was a giant breakthrough in the field of chemistry. His reward would be the 1972 Nobel Prize. • Young Gerhard Herzberg Gerhard Herzberg was born on Christmas Day, 1904. Herzberg's father, Albin, who was the co-manager of a semi' shipping company, was bom in a small German town called Langensalza.
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Nobel Laureates
Nobel Laureates Over the centuries, the Academy has had a number of Nobel Prize winners amongst its members, many of whom were appointed Academicians before they received this prestigious international award. Pieter Zeeman (Physics, 1902) Lord Ernest Rutherford of Nelson (Chemistry, 1908) Guglielmo Marconi (Physics, 1909) Alexis Carrel (Physiology, 1912) Max von Laue (Physics, 1914) Max Planck (Physics, 1918) Niels Bohr (Physics, 1922) Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (Physics, 1930) Werner Heisenberg (Physics, 1932) Charles Scott Sherrington (Physiology or Medicine, 1932) Paul Dirac and Erwin Schrödinger (Physics, 1933) Thomas Hunt Morgan (Physiology or Medicine, 1933) Sir James Chadwick (Physics, 1935) Peter J.W. Debye (Chemistry, 1936) Victor Francis Hess (Physics, 1936) Corneille Jean François Heymans (Physiology or Medicine, 1938) Leopold Ruzicka (Chemistry, 1939) Edward Adelbert Doisy (Physiology or Medicine, 1943) George Charles de Hevesy (Chemistry, 1943) Otto Hahn (Chemistry, 1944) Sir Alexander Fleming (Physiology, 1945) Artturi Ilmari Virtanen (Chemistry, 1945) Sir Edward Victor Appleton (Physics, 1947) Bernardo Alberto Houssay (Physiology or Medicine, 1947) Arne Wilhelm Kaurin Tiselius (Chemistry, 1948) - 1 - Walter Rudolf Hess (Physiology or Medicine, 1949) Hideki Yukawa (Physics, 1949) Sir Cyril Norman Hinshelwood (Chemistry, 1956) Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee (Physics, 1957) Joshua Lederberg (Physiology, 1958) Severo Ochoa (Physiology or Medicine, 1959) Rudolf Mössbauer (Physics, 1961) Max F. Perutz (Chemistry, 1962)
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View Full Statement
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Pdf File Available on P.3 of Essay
The Most-Cited Physical-Sciences Publications in the 1945-1954 Science Citation hdex Stephen G. Brush Department of History and Institute for Physical Science and Technology University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742 This essay examines the 52 most highly cited papers and books in the physical sciences, 1945-1954, based on the ScienceCitationIndexe cumulationfor that decade. It discussesSQrmof the major trends, achievements, and researchers in the physicaf sciences in the period including World War II. Com- parisons are made between citation frequencyand other measures of importance, suchas Nobel Prizes and judgments by historians of science. Virtuallyaflof the 52 most-citedphysicaf-sciencespublica- tionspresentedin the Bibliography at the end of this essay are in physics or chemistry. MaUer fields with lower citation frequencies, such as mathematics, geosciences, and astronomy/astrophysics, are not well represented. In Part 2, we will identify and discuss high-impact works from these fields. Introduction: The Top Five Citdion the themy of molecular structure-a theory Classics of 194S-1954 based directly on physics! After that experience it was no surprise A few years ago, when I was trying to ert- to learn that Pauling’s book, 27reNature of courage chemists to take an interest in the the Chen”cd Bond and the Stracture of MoI- history of their discipline, 1I asked them a ecules and C~stals: An Introduction to simple question: Who do you think is the Modem Structural Chemistry, was the most most important chemist of the twentieth cen- highly cited publication in the physical sci- tury? Who shotdd be presented to the public ences during the decade 1945-1954.
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