After winning the Westinghouse Science Talent Search in high school, Herzenberg attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
[2] At IIT Research Institute, she conducted her work as a principal investigator in the NASA Apollo returned lunar sample analysis program, and continued applications of Mössbauer spectrometry.
Subsequently, she held a position as a visiting associate professor of physics at the University of Illinois at the Medical Center from 1971 to 1974.
In particular, her work included engineering research relative to fossil energy utilization, as well as radioactive waste disposal, technology for arms control verification, and radiological emergency preparedness and also chemical warfare agent emergency preparedness.
[9][10][11] Initially, in 1977, Herzenberg joined a project for developing instrumentation for process control for a new generation of coal conversion and combustion plants.
[2] She later worked in technology assessment and evaluation of programs in areas that included fossil energy utilization, arms control verification, and radioactive waste disposal.
[2] Turning her focus to geological applications of the effect, Herzenberg concluded that it would be possible to analyze rocks and minerals retrieved from the Moon using Mössbauer spectrometry; and she was awarded a grant from NASA to carry out Mössbauer spectrometry during the Apollo program.
mathematics professor Dirk Jan Struik when he had drawn the unwelcome attention of Senator Joseph McCarthy after the advent of McCarthyism.
[19] A foray into politics, seeking a position as an alderman in Freeport, Illinois, was unsuccessful, but the experience guided her efforts in related activities.
[21][22] Following her retirement, Herzenberg has been active as a citizen in a variety of ways, including engaging in demonstrations and vigils in support of peace and justice and human rights and related endeavors.
She has participated with the American Friends Service Committee, the 8th Day Center for Justice, Jewish Voice for Peace and a number of other groups.
[24] In her leisure time, Herzenberg enjoys bird watching, usually in nearby Jackson Park (Chicago).