Zdeněk Herman (24 March 1934 – 25 February 2021) was a Czech

physical chemist Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistical mecha ...

Life and work

Herman was born on 24 March 1934 in

Libušín Libušín is a town in Kladno District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 3,600 inhabitants. Etymology The oldest entry of the name of the village was Ľubošín. The name was derived from the personal name Ľuboša ...

. He studied

physical chemistry Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistical mech ...

and

radiochemistry Radiochemistry is the chemistry of radioactive materials, where radioactive isotopes of elements are used to study the properties and chemical reactions of non-radioactive isotopes (often within radiochemistry the absence of radioactivity leads t ...

at the School of Mathematics and Physics of

Charles University Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest universities in the world in conti ...

, Prague (1952–1957). He then joined the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the

Czech Academy of Sciences The Czech Academy of Sciences (abbr. CAS, , abbr. AV ČR) was established in 1992 by the Czech National Council as the Czech successor of the former Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and its tradition goes back to the Royal Bohemian Society of Sc ...

, to which he remained affiliated. Herman's early work, with Vladimír Čermák concerned mass spectrometric studies of the kinetics of collision and ionization processes of

ion An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by convent ...

s (chemical reaction of ions, Penning and

associative ionization An ion source is a device that creates atomic and molecular ions. Ion sources are used to form ions for mass spectrometers, optical emission spectrometers, particle accelerators, ion implanters and ion engines. Electron ionization Electron ...

). During his post-doctoral years (1964–1965), with Richard Wolfgang at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

, Herman built one of the first crossed beam machines to study ion-molecule processes. Herman also built an improved crossed beam machine that was used in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

with colleagues to investigate the dynamics of ion-molecule and charge transfer reactions of

cations An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by convent ...

and

dication A dication is any cation, of general formula X2+, formed by the removal of two electrons from a neutral species. Diatomic dications corresponding to stable neutral species (e.g. formed by removal of two electrons from H2) often decay quickly int ...

s, and ion-surface collisions by the scattering method (1970–2010). Herman has published over 240 scientific articles in this field.

Awards

Herman's academic awards include the Ian Marcus Marci Medal (Czech Spectroscopic Society, 1989), the

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, natural history, naturalist, List of explorers, explorer, and proponent of Romanticism, Romantic philosophy and Romanticism ...

Research Prize (awarded in Germany in 1992, the first time the prize was awarded to a Czech natural scientist), the Česká hlava ("Czech Head") National Prize for lifetime achievements (2003), an Honorary Degree from the Leopold-Franzens University in Innsbruck (2007), and honorary membership of the Czech Mass Spectrometric Society. Special honorary issues of ''The Journal of Physical Chemistry'' (1995) and The ''

International Journal of Mass Spectrometry The ''International Journal of Mass Spectrometry'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of mass spectrometry, including instrumentation and applications in biology, chemistry, geology, and physics. It was established i ...

'' (2009)Int. J. Mass Spectrom., Vol. 280, 2009
/ref> were issued to celebrate his 60th and 75th birthdays respectively. Since 2014 the Resonance Foundation awards "The Zdeněk Herman Prize" for the best PhD thesis in

chemical physics Chemical physics is a branch of physics that studies chemical processes from a physical point of view. It focuses on understanding the physical properties and behavior of chemical systems, using principles from both physics and chemistry. This ...

and mass spectrometry. Since 2016 the international conference MOLEC (Dynamics of Molecular Systems) awards the "Zdeněk Herman Young Scientist Prize". In his free time, Herman painted and sculpted, and has exhibited his work on several occasions. Busts by Herman of founders of several institutes of the Academy of Sciences are on display at those institutes. Three statues sculpted by Herman stand in the countryside around

Rakovník Rakovník (, ) is a town in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 16,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected as an urban monument zone. Administrative division Rakovník consists o ...

(e.g., in the park in Pavlíkov).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Herman, Zdenek 1934 births 2021 deaths Czech chemists Physical chemists Charles University alumni People from Libušín