Born in Hamburg, Germany, Gerhard Herzberg studied physics at the Darmstadt Institute of Technology, where he also taught after receiving his doctor's degree in 1928. Relieved of his position in 1935 by the Nazis, he emigrated to Canada, where he taught at the University of Saskatchewan until 1945. After three years at the University of Chicago, he returned to Canada as head of the Division of Physics at the National Research Council, a position he held until his retirement in 1969. In 1971, he received the Nobel Prize of Chemistry for his work in the field of molecular spectroscopy. Died 1999.