Harry Gold was a Swiss-born American laboratory chemist who is known for having been convicted as a courier for the Soviet Union to pass atomic secrets from Klaus Fuchs, an agent of the Soviet Union, during World War II. Gold served as a government witness and testified in the case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted and executed in 1953 for their roles. Gold served 15 years in prison.
Born in Bern, Switzerland, to parents from the Russian Empire, Gold had immigrated to the US with his parents as a child at the age of four, and settled in Philadelphia. During the Great Depression, he found work and finished his degree in chemistry at night. He returned to work as a clinical chemist after release from prison.