Hochstrasser was born in
Edinburgh,
Scotland. In 1952, he received his B.S. from
Heriot-Watt University and 3 years later got his Ph.D. from
University of Edinburgh. In 1957 he joined the faculty at the
University of British Columbia. From 1962 to 1967 he was
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation fellow and in 1963 he taught
chemistry at
University of Pennsylvania. During his 50 years of teaching, he trained 75 Ph.D. students and more than 90 postdoctoral fellows. Between 1955 and 1957 he served in the
Royal Air Force. He also published numerous of scientific papers and two books;
Behaviour of Electrons in Atoms and
Molecular Aspects of Symmetry. From 1975 to 2012 he was an editor of the scientific journal called
Chemical physics. In 1972, he became visiting professor and fellow at
Clare College,
Cambridge University,
England and next year became visiting professor at
Australian National University,
Canberra. In 1978, he became a Senior Fellow at
Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute and the same year became a fellow at
American Physical Society. Next year, he became the Director of the University's Regional Laser and Biotechnology Laboratories and in 1980 became visiting professor at
LMU Munich. From 1985 to his death he was a chair of the John Scott Advisory Panel for the
City of Philadelphia. In 1986, he got Special President's Award from
SPIE. Next year, he became associate professor at
University of Paris and two years later became
Grenoble Professor at the
University of Grenoble. The same year he became a fellow at
Optical Society of America.
1990s In 1990, he received Philadelphia Section Award and the same year got
National Institutes of Health Merit Award. Six years have passed and he received another award, this time it was LICOR Award from
University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The next year brought him Ellis Lippincott Award from the
Optical Society of America. 1998 brought him two chair positions, one was at the Chemical Physics division of the American Physical Society, the other one was at the Biophysical Chemistry division of
American Chemical Society. He was also awarded the
E. Bright Wilson Award in Spectroscopy. From 2000 till his death he was an Honorary Professor of Physics at
University of Strathclyde.
2000s In 2000, he got
Centenary Silver Medal from the
Royal Society of Chemistry and three years later received
Benjamin Franklin Medal. In 2005, he received
F. Albert Cotton Medal from
Texas A&M University and in 2007 was awarded A. H. Zewail Award for Ultrafast Science and Technology. Next year, he became an honorary fellow at the
Royal Society of Edinburgh and two years later received the Pittsburgh Spectroscopy Award. In 2012, he got even more awards including
Linus Pauling Award. He died on 27 February 2013 at the age of 82. After his death, in June 2013 he was posthumously awarded a
Doctorate of Science from the University of Edinburgh. ==References==