Initially, Herzberg considered a career in astronomy, but his application to the Hamburg Observatory was returned advising him not to pursue a career in the field without private financial support.  After completing high school at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums, Herzberg continued his education at Darmstadt University of Technology with the help of a private scholarship.  Herzberg completed his Dr.-Ing. degree under  in 1928.
* 1928&ndash;30 Post-doctoral work at the University of Göttingen and Bristol University under James Franck, Max Born, John Lennard-Jones
* 1930 Darmstadt University of Technology: Privatdozent (lecturer) and senior assistant in Physics
* 1935 Guest professor, University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, Canada)
* 1936&ndash;45 Professor of Physics, University of Saskatchewan
* 1939 Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
* 1945&ndash;8 Professor of spectroscopy, Yerkes Observatory, University of Chicago (Chicago, United States)
* 1948 Director of the Division of Pure Physics, National Research Council of Canada
* 1951 Fellow of the Royal Society of London
* 1957&ndash;63 Vice President of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics
* 1956&ndash;7 President of the Canadian Association of Physicists
* 1960 gives Bakerian Lecturer of the Royal Society of London
* 1965 Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
* 1966&ndash;7 President of the Royal Society of Canada
* 1968 Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences
* 1968 Companion of the Order of Canada
* 1968 George Fisher Baker Non-Resident Lecturer in Chemistry at Cornell University (Ithaca, United States)
* 1969 Willard Gibbs Award
* 1969 Distinguished Research Scientist in the recombined Division of Physics, at the National Research Council of Canada
* 1970 Lecturer of the Chemical Society of London, receives Faraday Medal
* 1971 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his contributions to the knowledge of electronic structure and geometry of molecules, particularly free radicals"
* 1971 Royal Medal from Royal Society of London
* 1972 Member of the American Philosophical Society
* 1973-1980 Chancellor of Carleton University (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)
* 1981 Founding member of the World Cultural Council.
* 1992 Sworn into the Queen's Privy Council for Canada
* 1999 Died aged 94