Maximilian Herzberger was the son of Leopold Herzberger (born 7 Mar 1870,
Krefeld — died in
Rochester (NY)) and Sonja/Sofia Behrendt/Berendt/Berends (22 Mar 1876, Petersburg (Germany) — 28 Jan 1945,
Florence); he had a sister Olga (24 Sep 1897, Berlin — 2 Aug 1922, Berlin). The family was
Jewish. He studied mathematics and physics at the
Berlin University, where
Albert Einstein was one of his professors, and later became a friend and advisor. In 1925, he married Edith Kaufmann (10 Oct 1901,
Stuttgart — 16 Feb 2001,
Carlsbad (California) or
New Orleans); they had three children, born in Jena, viz. Ruth (born 1928),
Ursula Bellugi (1931), and Hans (6 Aug 1932, spouse of
Radhika Herzberger). No later than Sep 1930, he was assistant of
Hans Boegehold,(
de) the chief of calculation office at
Carl Zeiss Jena. After the
Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, he emigrated with his family to
Rochester (NY), where he became head of
Eastman Kodak's optical research laboratories, arranged by Einstein. in 1959, he was part of the inaugural class of Fellows of the Optical Society of America. In 1962, he was awarded the
Frederic Ives Medal of the
Optical Society of America. In 1965, he retired from his position at Kodak, and helped building a graduate institute for optics in Switzerland, and a
"superachromatic objective". He died on 9 April 1982. ==Publications==