But hisground-breaking research did not end there. Dr. Boris Stoicheff, the University of Torontospectroscopist who was a member of Herzberg's NRC lab for 13 years, and who is writing Dr. Herzberg's biography, stresses that the Nobel Laureate's productivity did not end with the award. Even in his 90th year, he isenthusiastically pursuing the identification of complex spectra and the enigmatic 'diffuseinterstellar lines', known for about 60 years, but to date still neither identified nor reproduced in alaboratory. He may spend more time now at his music and reading of biographies, but I am surehe will continue to actively pursue solutions to molecular puzzles for many years to come.
Spectroscopy is the study of the unique frequencies of light that atoms and molecules emit orabsorb.
Herzberg's 1971 Nobel Prize recognized work carried out at NRC during the 1960s. In theintroduction that preceded the awarding of the prize, Dr. Stig Claesson of the Royal Academy ofSciences explained how a physicist came to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Understanding their behaviour and properties is fundamental to scientists' ability tounderstand how chemical reactions proceed. Herzberg applied pioneering pulsed, spectroscopic techniques to precisely determine thestructures and properties of over 30 free radicals.