Saskatoon Star Phoenix
February 3, 1972. p.3
When Dr. Gerhard Herzberg came to Saskatoon in 1935 as a refugee from Nazi
university purges in Germany, he said to the university president, "I hope
I'll be of some use to you."
His remark proved to be an understatement and on Wednesday, when he returned
to Saskatoon, he received a hero's welcome.
He is the first Canadian to win a Nobel Prize in either of the increasingly
related fields of chemistry and physics and he now joins Sir Frederick Banting
and Lester B. Pearson as a Canadian Nobel laureate.
He served with the
University of Saskatchewan from 1935-45 as a research professor of physics.
He came here with an international reputation. While in Saskatoon, he authored
two books. Atomic Spectra and Atomic Structure in 1937 and Molecular Structure
in 1939.
The books, which have become the bible of new science are widely regarded
as the most authoritative treatises that have ever been produced on spectroscopy
and are internationally recognized as source books in that field.
He is regarded as the founder and earliest pioneer in science of defining
the shape of molecules by measuring the light absorbed or emitted by
them.
"We have great pride in Dr. Herzberg who was a member of the faculty, a citizen of Saskatoon and of Saskatchewan"; "we admire and acclaim your achievements"; "Saskatoon is proud of you and pays tribute to you"; "you are a distinguished scholar and a fine teacher"; and "you are a benefit to Saskatchewan and Canada." These were some of the tributed at a testimonial dinner in his honor by Lt. Gov. Stephen Worobetz, Education Minister Gordon MacMurchy, Mayor Bert Sears, university president Dr. J.W.T. Spinks, Saskatoon campus university principal Dr. R. W. Begg, Regina campus principal Dr. J.H. Archer, and Dr. Leon Datz, head of the university physics department.
