Karl Herzfeld

Who is this?

Karl Ferdinand Herzfeld (February 24, 1892 – June 3, 1978) was an Austrian–American physicist and chemist. He worked on condensed matter physics, fluid dynamics, and statistical mechanics. In 1927, he was the first to quantify when a substance is a metal or an insulator. The Goldhammer–Herzfeld criterion to classify metalloids is named after him. With Frank O. Rice, he studied the rate equations of the pyrolysis of acetaldehyde in 1934. Their model is known as the Rice–Herzfeld mechanism. Herzfeld also wrote on philosophy and theology. He was married to anthropologist Regina Flannery.

Career

1. 1892
   Born
2. 1978
   Passed away
3. Member of National Academy of Sciences
4. Member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Trivia

• •Place of birth: Vienna
• •Citizenship: United States, Austria
• •Known as: physicist, nuclear physicist, university teacher