Karl Herzfeld

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**Karl Herzfeld**
Regina and Karl, at Regina's graduation 1938
Born	February 24, 1892 Vienna, Austria
Died	June 3, 1978 Washington DC, USA
Nationality	Austrian-American
Field	Physicist
Institution	University of Munich, Johns Hopkins University, The Catholic University of America
Alma Mater	University of Vienna
Doctoral Advisor	Friedrich Hasenöhrl
Doctoral Students	John Archibald Wheeler, Walter Heitler
Known for	Kinetic theory, ultrasonics

Karl Ferdinand Herzfeld (February 24, 1892–June 3, 1978) was an Austrian-American physicist. He was born in Vienna and earned his PhD in physics in 1914 under Friedrich Hasenöhrl at the University of Vienna. During World War I he was an artillery officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army, then after several years as privatdozent with Arnold Sommerfeld he was appointed to a professorship at the University of Munich. Sommerfeld maintained a correspondence with Herzfeld for the rest of his life. In 1926 Herzfeld came to the United States and accepted a position at Johns Hopkins University. John Archibald Wheeler took his PhD under Herzfeld in 1933. Herzfeld moved to The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C in 1936, where he received emeritus honors in 1969 and stayed active for the rest of his life.

Herzfeld wrote two books, Kinetische Theorie der Wärme (Kinetic Theory of Heat, 1925), and Absorption and Dispersion of Ultrasonic Waves (with coauthor Theodore Litovitz) in 1959, along with more than 140 papers. He guided about 40 PhD candidates from 1936–1962 while he was department chair at Catholic University. Herzfeld was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1958 and the National Academy of Sciences in 1960, and was a member of both the American Physical Society and the Acoustical Society of America. He received a number of honorary degrees and awards. Herzfeld died in Washington in 1978.