Herschbach, Dudley R.

Dudley R. Herschbach, in full Dudley Robert Herschbach, (born June 18, 1932, San Jose, California, U.S.), American chemist and educator who, with Yuan T. Lee and John C. Polanyi, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1986 for his pioneering use of molecular beams to analyze chemical reactions.

Herschbach attended Stanford University (B.S., M.S.) and received a Ph.D. in chemical physics from Harvard University in 1958. He taught at the University of California at Berkeley from 1959 until 1963, when he joined the faculty at Harvard University, where he became Francis B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science in 1976; he retired as professor emeritus in 2003.

In an attempt to discover in detail the changes that occur in chemical reactions, Herschbach applied a technique that was then becoming popular in elementary particle physics—molecular beam scattering. He invented what is known as the “crossed molecular beam technique,” in which beams of molecules are brought together at supersonic speed under carefully controlled conditions. This procedure enabled a detailed, molecule-by-molecule examination of the chemical reaction event.