Bio

Norman Haber was born in Brooklyn, NY on February 8th, 1929. His parents – Morris and Annette – were from Eastern Europe

Young Norman
and made their way to America through Ellis Island around 1920. Morris was originally from Romania and worked as an upholsterer. Born in Poland, Annette was a seamstress and also acted in the Jewish theater of New York. In addition to their primary occupations, Morris and Annette owned and ran a hotel in the Catskills, which is where the family would spend much of their time when not in Brooklyn.
Norman's fascination and facility with the sciences were expressed early on, and by his teenage years he was winning awards in school for scientific achievement and terrorizing his parents with chemistry experiments in the bathroom of their Brighton Beach apartment. The passion for science continued to grow and Norman eventually enrolled in the Chemistry program at Brooklyn College. Later, he went on to earn an MA in Physiology and Biological Sciences from Hunter College. Although Haber subsequently pursued a Ph.D. at New York University, he elected to leave formal academia prematurely in order to focus on Electro Molecular Propulsion (EMP) — a revolutionary technology he had just developed to control the movement of molecules in liquids.

Professor L. Pierce Williams of the New York Academy of Sciences had the following to say about Norman's innovation:

Norman Haber's discovery of Electromolecular Propulsion will lead to a radical new theory of the liquid state and to our understanding of intermolecular actions ... It seems to me to be quite analogous to the discovery of X rays by Roentgen, which ultimately led to a revolution in our understanding of matter.
In 1967, in an effort to further promote Electromolecular Propulsion, Norman

Norman with EMP Unit
founded Haber Incorporated. For nearly 40 years, he was the driving force behind the company, acting as chairman and chief scientific innovator. Haber, Inc. remains in business today and continues to pursue commercial applications for Norman's primary innovations. 

Throughout his career, Norman was awarded numerous patents in both the U.S. and abroad for EMP devices. In 1982 his developments were explained in "Chemoelectronic Mobilization of Chemical Species in Low-Conductivity Fluids: New Electrokinetic Effect" - a paper that he published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In addition to all the work that Norman was doing with EMP, he was also taking a real interest in metallurgy and the environmental hazards associated with conventional mining practices. In the mid 70s, he responded to these concerns by developing the Haber Gold Process (HGP) — an environmentally-friendly gold mining technology that also offers other processing advantages over standard extraction methods.

There was much more to Norman Haber than science and entrepreneurial endeavors however. He had a deep love for classical music and the visual arts – an often unbridled passion that left his homes overstuffed with paintings. Norman was also intrigued by the philosophical dimensions of science, an interest that prompted him to write a lengthy manuscript (as of yet unpublished) outlining a novel theory of time.

Norman Haber was a family man as well. In 1961, at a party hosted by one of his friends, he met Marika Militzer, a Hungarian woman who had moved from Europe to New York a few years earlier.

Norman and Marika
Norman and Marika were married in 1963, and over the next decade had two children – Marco and Tara.
In the early 70s, Norman relocated his family and Haber, Inc. from New York City to the wooded suburbs of northern New Jersey. Ironically (given the condition that ultimately took his life), the move was at least partly motivated by a desire to live in a less polluted environment. The Habers resided in New Jersey for decades, and then in 1999, Norman and Marika settled on the East Coast of Florida, which is where the two remained until Norman's death.
On September 22nd, 2007, at the age of 78, Norman Haber died of Pulmonary Fibrosis in a Florida hospital. Although his will to live seemed tireless, the disease, terminal as it is, finally took him. But the manner in which Norman Haber confronted his illness was a testament to his character and nothing short of heroic.
Pulmonary Fibrosis, particularly in its later stages, imposes life restrictions and suffering that can be overwhelming (in short, you are faced with a constant struggle to breathe). Norman virtually never complained however.

Norman and his Grandson
He remained upbeat, jocular, and simply refused to give up on his plans and obligations. Until the very end, even just days before his final admittance to the hospital, Norman – while hooked up to multiple oxygen tanks, bound to a wheelchair, and requiring the aid of a driver and assistant – was still regularly heading to the Haber, Inc. Florida facility in order to continue working on company technology. And to almost everyone's surprise, even though Pulmonary Fibrosis starves the body of oxygen, Norman's inventive mind did not falter. It was not until the last few hours of his life, when morphine was finally administered in order to help ease suffering, that he showed any signs of cognitive compromise.
Norman Haber was a maverick. As such, he endured years of struggle trying to introduce his novel theories and technologies to the world. Critics in the press and elsewhere would sometimes call him a 'dreamer'. In many instances they were probably right; Norman Haber was a dreamer. But it was precisely his ability to dream – to really dream – that gave rise to such revolutionary developments in the first place.

To date, the full potential of Haber's science remains largely untapped. Nevertheless, there is still hope that the world will someday come to more thoroughly recognize and benefit from his innovations. If this happens, it certainly won't be the first time in history that an inventive mastermind is not given proper credits until after he is gone.