Dudley R. Herschbach
Facts
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
Dudley R. Herschbach
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1986
Born: 18 June 1932, San José, CA, USA
Affiliation at the time of the award: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Prize motivation: “for their contributions concerning the dynamics of chemical elementary processes”
Prize share: 1/3
Work
Chemical reactions in which molecules comprised of atoms collide and form new compounds represent one of nature’s fundamental processes. At the end of the 1960s Dudley Herschbach and Yuan Lee began developing methods to carefully study the dynamics of chemical reactions. Beams of molecules with fixed amounts of energy were made to cross one another so that chemical reactions arose where the beams intersected. By measuring the movement, mass and energy of the molecules produced, the reactions can be mapped.
Nobel Prizes and laureates
Six prizes were awarded for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. The 12 laureates' work and discoveries range from proteins' structures and machine learning to fighting for a world free of nuclear weapons.
See them all presented here.
