Judith Herzfeld

Moving back to Boston, she took a position at Harvard Medical School, first as a member of the Biophysical Laboratory (led by Arthur K. Solomon) and then as a member of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics. There she represented her colleagues on the Faculty Council, served on the Faculty Docket Committee, and chaired the Joint Committee on the Status of Women of the Harvard Schools of Medicine, Dental Medicine and Public Health. Her two daughters were born during those years. In 1985 she moved to the Department of Chemistry at Brandeis University where her service has included two terms as a faculty senator, one term as the department chair (the first woman in that role in the physical sciences), and four terms as a faculty representative to the board of trustees.

She received her university education at Barnard College of Columbia University (bachelor's in chemistry 1967, advisor Bernice Segal), MIT (doctorate in chemical physics 1972, departmental advisor Robert Silbey, thesis advisor H. Eugene Stanley) and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (master's in public policy 1973). She began her independent work as a tenure track assistant professor of chemistry at Amherst College in 1973, the first woman appointed to the faculty in the natural sciences at the then still all-male college. A year later she resigned to marry MIT scientist Robert Griffin.

Judith Herzfeld (born 1948) is Professor Emerita at Brandeis University. Known for her work in statistical thermodynamics, solid state NMR and chemical education, she is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Massachusetts Academy of Sciences. She is the author or coauthor of more than 180 scientific papers and a book.