Herzenberg was born in New York City, U.S.A.. He received his bachelor’s degree in 1952 from Brooklyn College in biology and chemistry. In 1955, he received his Ph.D. from California Institute of Technology in biochemistry with a specialization in immunology for studies on cytochrome in Neurospora.  After school he was a postdoctoral fellow at the American Cancer Society, working in France at the Pasteur Institute. He returned to the United States in 1957 and worked for the National Institutes of Health as an officer in the Public Health Service department. He started working at Stanford in 1959. He eventually earned the title Professor of Genetics.  In 1970 Herzenberg developed the fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS) which revolutionized immunology and cancer biology, and is the basis for purification of adult stem cells.  Herzenberg and his wife, Leonore Herzenberg, ran the Herzenberg Laboratory at Stanford together until his death. Their daughter, Jana Herzen, is a singer-songwriter and the founder of Motéma Music. He died on October 27, 2013 aged 81.