Dudley R. Herschbach

Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor Emerita of Science. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Nobel Prize Recipient in Chemistry, 1986.

Dr. Dudley Herschbach is the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science, Emeritus at Harvard University. Born in San Jose, California, he obtained a B.S. in Mathematics (1954) and M. S. in Chemistry (1955) at Stanford, followed by an A.M. degree in Physics (1956) and Ph.D. in Chemical Physics (1958). He joined the chemistry faculty at the University of California, Berkeley (1959), where he launched novel molecular beam experiments to probe reaction dynamics in single collisions. He returned to Harvard (1963), expanding the beam experiments and much else over the next four decades. He taught a wide range of courses, graduate and undergraduate, including freshman chemistry for 20 years, his most challenging assignment. After becoming emeritus (2003) he continued teaching a freshman seminar (up to 2011, titled: “Molecular Motors: Wizards of the Nanoworld”). He also enjoyed some visiting appointments, especially in physics at Texas A & M University (2005-2017).

His efforts to enhance science education and public understanding centered for many years with the Society for Science and the Public, which publishes Science News and conducts the Science Talent Search and the International Science and Engineering Fair. He long-chaired the Hans Bethe Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation, and is a Life member of Friends of Benjamin Franklin and of The Sierra Club.

Honors include the Nobel Prize (1986), shared with Yuan Lee and John Polanyi. Among others much appreciated are Honorary Life Member of the Association of Women Scientists (1998); and three prizes named for him: Harvard Chemistry Teaching Prize for Graduate Students; Harvard University Teacher/Scientist Lectureship; and a Molecular Dynamics Prize.