Biographical Memoirs Volume 80 (2001) / Chapter Skim
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Karl Ferdinand Herzfeld
Karl Ferdinand Herzfeld
Pages 160-183
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o - o A o En TO .—~ TO TO a; TO to v)
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extraordinary professor of theoretical physics at Munich University. A year later he accepted a visiting professorship in the Unitecl States at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MarylancI.
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, en cl macle major contributions to Felix Klein's Encyktopadie der Mathematischen Wissenschaften, to the Handbuch der Physik, en cl to the Handbuch der Experimental Physik on a variety of topics relating to physicochemical properties of matter.
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, who hac! taken the place of Ludwig Boltzmann as heacl of the Theoretical Physics Institute in Vienna following Boltzmann's lamentable suicide in 1906.
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statistical mechanics to a gas of free electrons as a moclel for a theory of metals (1913~. By the time he completecl his physics degree in 1914 he aireacly hac!
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the lectures of ArnoIcl SommerfelcI, professor of theoretical physics, en cl of Kasimir Fajans, professor of physical chemistry. He impressec!
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The ensuing debate between defenders of Herzfeld's collision theory and the chemists' proposal that the extra energy required was provided by radiation from the walls of the reaction vessel was finally settled in Herzfeld's favor. An important problem in physical chemistry was the relationship between statistical mechanics and thermodynamics.
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. In aciclition to the above monograph on the kinetic theory of heat, his Handbuch articles, en cl two articles in the Handbuch der Experimental Physik, one of which was a long article on the lattice theory of solicis ~ ~ 928)
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S Ames to hire two aciclitional young faculty members and to fund improved research laboratories for the physics department.
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ant! Maria Gooppert-Mayer, who received her Nobel Prize only in 1963 after she en cl her husband, the physical chemist Joseph Mayer, hac!
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Bearden blamed Herzfeld for causing dissension in the physics department by his strong support of Maria Mayer for a regular faculty appointment.7 Herzfelcl's unhappiness soon became common knowIedge, and he received offers of professorships in the physics departments of both Forc~ham University in New York City en cl Catholic University. Neither of these was a strong research department, a situation that Herzfelcl clicl not like, but he decided to talk over these two offers with Isaiah
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The members of the Johns Hopkins University chemistry department on March 12, 1936, felt so strongly about the departure of Herzfelc! that they wrote a letter of protest to President Bowman containing the following sentiments:8 We know of no theoretical physicist who enjoys nearly the reputation of Professor Herzfeld and who has at the same time the thorough knowledge of the science of chemistry and the acquaintance with chemical problems which he possesses.
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I Roothaan in the physics department and Virginia Griffing in the chemistry department trained many cloctoral students (inclucling this writer)
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to lecture on both theoretical physics en cl physical chemistry in Munich cluring the spring semester, en cl enjoyocl this wonclerfuT opportunity to spenc! some time with his oic!
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students to produce, he drove himself to work harcler than anyone else in the physics department (as a graduate student I was tempter! at times to think that he might have been even more productive as a scholar if he had not been overly tired from teaching evening graduate courses to accommodate part-time students)
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invited her to join him in conclucting a seminar on the quantum mechanics of molecules. He publishecl three papers with Virginia Griffing of the Catholic University chemistry department (1955)
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Those of us who profited! so greatly from the teaching and advice of this kindly, dedicated, and uniquely skilled mentor will always be grateful for the opportunity Karl Herzfeld gave us to share in the great European tradition of theoretical physics that he represented and that he communicatecl so generously to his students en cl colleagues.
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THE CONTENTS OF THIS BIOGRAPHICAL memoir are based in great part on materials provided by the National Academy of Sciences and on the Archival Collections at the American Institute of Physics Niels Bohr Library in College Park, Maryland. The most relevant Herzfeld documents in the American Institute of Physics collection are designated as OH 213 and OH 214 (oral history interviews)
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1979~:99. This is a short but beautiful and moving obituary of Karl Herzfeld by his best-known and now most renowned doctoral student.
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8. Members of the Tohns Hopkins chemistry department to President Isaiah Bowman, March 12, 1936; in Toseph Mayer Papers, University of California, San Diego; in Special Collections Department, University Library, UCSD.
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Sitzangsberichte der Koniglichen Akademie der Wissenschaften Wien 121 (2a)
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Gittertheorie der festen Korper. In Handbuch der Experimental Physik, band 7, eds.
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The kinetic theory of gases. In A Treatise on Physical Chemistry, 3rd ea.; vol.
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