What is Spectroscopy?

What is spectroscopy? This video, produced by Defining Moments Canada, explains what this is, how Gerhard Herzberg used it, and what its applications are today.

CBC Archives

This Country in the Morning

Courtesy of CBC Radio

Peter Gzowski, host of This Country in the Morning, inteviews Dr. H.L. Welsh, Chairman of Physics Department at the University of Toronto, and Dr. Gerhard Herzberg, physicist (interview over the phone from Moscow), about the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Dr. Herzberg, the role of science, the obstacles to scientific research specially in pure science, the functioning of the NRC, the importance of independence and autonomy in scientific research, science in the USSR.

November 1, 1971

As it Happens

Courtesy of CBC Radio

Interviewed by Barbara Frum, Dr. Gerhard Herzberg, Canadian Nobel Prize winner, speaks from Ottawa about the problems of awarding the Nobel Prize, deciding who gets it and the competition between scientists to get the prize.

July 6, 1972

Front Page Chalenge

Courtesy of CBC Archives/CBC Saskatchewan

Fred Davis moderated the panel quiz show CBC's Front Page Challenge in which panellists identified news stories from clues supplied by a mystery guest.

On this episode... CANADIAN SCIENTIST WINS NOBEL PRIZE: Mystery guest Dr. Gerhard Herzberg (an opera-loving, mountain-climbing physicist with the National Research Council who won a nobel prize for his work in molecular spectroscopy).

Panellists: Pierre Berton, Betty Kennedy and Gordon Sinclair. Guest panellist: Dr. Don Ivey.

Oct. 10, 1972

CBC Radio Archives - News Report

Courtesy of CBC Archives/CBC Saskatchewan

In this CBC news clip, it's announced that Canadian scientist Gerhard Herzberg has won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Original air date: Nov. 1, 1971

CBC Radio Archives - Five Nights

Courtesy of CBC Archives/CBC Saskatchewan

On this segment of CBC Five Nights, Nobel Prize winner, chemist Dr. Gerhard Hertzberg, says he would be disappointed at decreasing support for basic research.

He says it's difficult to have industry accept innovation, and stresses the importance of the pursuit of knowledge.

Reporter: Helen Frayne

Original airdate: Nov. 3, 1972

CBC News - Vintage Video

Courtesy of CBC NEWS

November 9, 1971

OTTAWA -- Canadian Gerhard Herzberg who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1971 comments on the need for scientific research being decided by the scientist and the need for increased funding for research in pure science.

National Film Board - Herzberg (1979)

Gerhard Herzberg, winner of a Nobel Prize in 1971, is a molecular spectroscopist who was welcomed to Canada by the University of Saskatchewan in 1935 where he spent 10 productive years. This film shows Dr. Herzberg in his laboratory at the National Research Council in Ottawa where, with the aid of highly sophisticated instruments, he tracks down elusive bits of matter that are the keys to discovering what the planets, stars and the universe are made of.

Enjoy a virtual screening of Herzberg (1979), a documentary produced by the National Film Board of Canada and Les Productions Tournesol. This online, live-screening is available for a limited time, thanks to the National Film Board.

USask-produced videos

Prof. Alex Moewes
USask President Peter Stoicheff
Prof. Emeritus Ron Steer
USask PhD Student Natasha Vetter