Abraham Hertzberg (1922-2003) was born in the Bronx but was raised in Richmond, Virginia. He received his B.S. from Virginia Polytechnical Institute (Virginia Tech) in aeronautics in 1943. He later earned his M.S. from Cornell where he then worked with his wife Ruth on high energy gas dynamics at the Cornell Aerospace Laboratory. Hertzberg worked on other adventurous projects like a zero polluting car, consumer space travel, and nuclear fusion. While working at Cornell, the U.S. Department of Defense was interested in his work on lasers. In 1966, he began working at the University of Washington.

At UW, Hertzberg created the Aerospace and Energetics Laboratory and held 21 patents as well as over 120 published papers. He also was awarded the longest running NASA grant awarded to any university which made up some of the millions of dollars in research funding Hertzberg brought to UW. Most of his projects and research focused on discovering cheap energy. He was also called to be an advisor to the Air Force, NASA, the National Research Council, and other prominent institutions. Abraham (also called Abe) Hertzberg spoke about the effects of pollution and the energy crisis before they happened, trying to caution researchers to produce new technologies.

Hertzberg and his wife travelled all around the world and also met foreign dignitaries as honored guests. Abraham received an award from the National Academy of Engineering in 1976. He retired in 1993 but continued working on new theories and inventions until his death in 2003.