Caroline Herzenberg

Caroline Stuart Littlejohn Herzenberg (March 25, 1932 - March 30, 2025) was an American physicist.

Family Caroline Herzenberg was born Caroline Stuart Littlejohn to Caroline Dorothea Schulze and Charles Frederick Littlejohn on March 25, 1932, in East Orange, New Jersey. In 1961 she married Leonardo Herzenberg and is the mother of two grown children, Karen Ann Herzenberg and Catherine Stuart Herzenberg Larson.

For graduate study she went on to the University of Chicago. She took a class with Enrico Fermi and subsequently conducted some calculations for him. She went on to receive her master's degree from the University of Chicago in 1955. For doctoral work she turned to Samuel K. Allison, who became her thesis advisor. Her thesis research, in experimental physics, was in low energy nuclear physics, and was conducted on the 3 Mev Van de Graaff accelerator in the Research Institutes. She was awarded a PhD in 1958 by the University of Chicago.

Career Herzenberg continued at the University of Chicago for another year as a postdoctoral fellow and a research associate at the Enrico Fermi Institute for Nuclear Studies at the University of Chicago. She then went on to become a research associate in the Physics Division of Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. She was responsible for organization, instruction, and planning for the College of Pharmacy, and she supervised graduate laboratory instruction in radioisotope utilization and applications for the University of Illinois at the Medical Center. From 1975 to 1976 she spent an academic year in California at California State University, Fresno, where she was a lecturer in physics, and was involved in general physics curriculum organization and instruction and presented lectures on electromagnetic theory. In 1977, Herzenberg initially joined a project for developing instrumentation for process control for a new generation of coal conversion and combustion plants. Development proceeded on non-invasive techniques for measuring the composition and flow rate of coal slurries and pulverized coal in pneumatic transport in pipes. For the analysis of the composition of coal, she worked on the application of neutron-induced gamma spectrometry; while measurement of slurry flow was based on using short lived radioactivity induced in the slurry.

Research in Physics and Related Fields Following Caroline Herzenberg's doctoral research in experimental low energy nuclear physics with Samuel K. Allison as thesis advisor, her research continued at the University of Chicago during her year of postdoctoral work when she measured the products of nuclear reactions between lithium isotopes and those of beryllium and boron; research which laid foundations for future heavy ion investigation. She later established Mössbauer-effect research facilities at Illinois Institute of Technology and at IIT Research Institute.

Herzenberg has authored or coauthored hundreds of scientific and technical papers, and has written a number of chapters in books dealing with scientific and technical topics.

Honors Herzenberg was the first scientist to be inducted into the Chicago Women's Hall of Fame. She was awarded an honorary Sc.D. degree by the State University of New York, Plattsburgh in 1991. As a result of her work, Herzenberg was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, and the Association for Women in Science, and served as the president of the Association for Women in Science from 1988 to 1990. A foray into politics, seeking a position as an alderman in Freeport, Illinois, was unsuccessful, but the experience guided her efforts in related activities. While in Freeport, she developed and presented a television series on science, "Camera on Science". National attention was directed at her when in 1986 she conducted independent research and published a short paper showing that Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) weapons under development for use in defense would also be able to be used offensively. Following her retirement, Herzenberg has been active as a citizen in a variety of ways, including engaging in demonstrations and vigils in support of peace and justice and human rights and related endeavors. She has participated with the American Friends Service Committee, the 8th Day Center for Justice, Jewish Voice for Peace and a number of other groups. She occasionally writes popular material, including correspondence to newspapers. Over the years, Herzenberg obtained a pilot's license; studied Judo, Aikido, and other martial arts; and enjoyed bird watching.