Mathematical physicist, born in New Haven, Connecticut, USA. He was the seventh generation of a family of scholars and educators, and the son of Yale divinity professor Josiah Willard Gibbs. After receiving his PhD from Yale (1863), he taught Latin and natural philosophy there for three years. He then studied mathematics and physics in Paris (18667), Berlin (186788), and Heidelberg (18689). Returning to New Haven, he became a professor at Yale (18711903). In the 1870s he published influential papers on the geometrical analysis of the thermodynamics of fluids and surfaces, which clarified the concept of entropy. His classic work On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances (1876, 1878) integrated chemical, physical, electrical, and electromagnetic phenomena into a cohesive system, and introduced the phase rule that formed the basis for modern physical chemistry. He developed his system of vector algebra (18804) which, he felt, superseded the older system of quaternions. During 18829 he published many articles on the electric properties of light. A quiet, dignified person who wrote predominantly from memory, he was respected by students and colleagues, and was internationally recognized for his elegant contributions to mathematics and physical science.
| Willard Gibbs | |
|---|---|
| Scientist | |
| Born |
February 11, 1839 New Haven, Connecticut, USA |
| Died |
April 28, 1903 New Haven, Connecticut, USA |
Josiah Willard Gibbs (February 11, 1839 – April 28, 1903) was an American mathematical physicist who contributed much of the theoretical foundation for chemical thermodynamics. The Gibbs Professorship of Physics and Chemistry was founded in his name.
| …whose name not only in America but in the whole world will ever be reckoned among the most renowned theoretical physicists of all times… |
Biography
Gibbs' scientific career can be divided into four phases:
Until 1879: theoretical thermodynamics. After 1889: statistical mechanics, laying a foundation and "providing a mathematical framework for quantum theory and for Maxwell's theories"He also wrote classic textbooks on this last subject.
Early years
Gibbs was the seventh in a long line of American academics stretching back to the 17th century. the son, however, is never referred to as "Josiah Willard Gibbs, Jr." No fewer than six of his relations have borne the name Josiah Willard Gibbs.
Gibbs first attended the Hopkins School. In 1854, at the age of fifteen, Gibbs entered Yale College, graduating in 1858 very high in his class and receiving prizes in mathematics and Latin.
Middle years
Gibbs obtained the first Ph.D.
In 1869 he returned to Yale and was appointed Professor of Mathematical Physics in 1871, the first such professorship in the United States, and a position he held for the rest of his life. a reason was that Gibbs had yet to publish anything. Between 1876 and 1878 Gibbs wrote a series of papers collectively titled On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances, now deemed one of the greatest scientific achievements of the 19th century and a founding paper of physical chemistry. In these papers Gibbs applied thermodynamics to interpret physicochemical phenomena, successfully explaining and interrelating what had previously been a mass of isolated facts.
"It is universally recognised that its publication was an event of the first importance in the history of chemistry. Willard Gibbs)
Gibbs then turned to the development and presentation of his theory of thermodynamics. In 1873, Gibbs published a paper on the geometric representation of thermodynamic quantities. This paper inspired Maxwell to make (with his own hands) a plaster cast illustrating Gibbs' construct which he then sent to Gibbs.
Gibbs published his classic paper "On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances" in two installments in 1876 and 1878. The Gibbs phase rule.
Later years
In 1880, the new Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland offered Gibbs a position paying $3000. From 1880 to 1884, Gibbs combined the ideas of two mathematicians, the quaternions of William Rowan Hamilton and the exterior algebra of Hermann Grassmann to obtain vector analysis (independently formulated by the British mathematical physicist and engineer Oliver Heaviside). Gibbs designed vector analysis to clarify and advance mathematical physics.
From 1882 to 1889, Gibbs both refined his vector analysis and researched optics, developing a new electrical theory of light. After 1889, Gibbs wrote classic textbooks on statistical mechanics, which Yale published in 1902. Other areas Gibbs contributed to include crystallography and the determinism of planetary and comet orbits, the latter being an application of his vector methods.
Information about the names and careers of Gibbs's Yale students is not readily available.
Gibbs never married, living all his life in his childhood home with a sister and his brother-in-law, the Yale librarian.
Scientific recognition
Recognition was slow in coming, in part because Gibbs published mainly in the Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Sciences, a journal, edited by his librarian brother-in-law, little read in the USA and less in Europe. Only when Gibbs's papers were translated into German (then the leading language for chemistry) by Wilhelm Ostwald in 1892, and into French by Henri Louis le Chatelier in 1899, did his ideas receive wide currency in Europe.
The situation in his native America was even quieter. During Gibbs's lifetime, American secondary schools and colleges emphasized classics rather than science, students tended to take little interest in Gibbs's lectures. (The notions that scientific teaching and research are a fundamental part of the modern university arose in Germany during the 19th century, and only gradually spread from there to the USA.) The result was a situation described as follows:
"In his later years he was a tall, dignified gentleman, with a healthy stride and ruddy complexion, performing his share of household chores, approachable and kind (if unintelligible) to students. Gibbs was highly esteemed by his friends, but American science was too preoccupied with practical questions to make much use of his profound theoretical work during his lifetime. (Crowther 1969: nnn)
Gibbs died soon after the inauguration of the Nobel Prize and so did not win it.
In 1945, Yale University created the J. Willard Gibbs Professorship in Theoretical Chemistry, held until 1973 by Lars Onsager, who won the 1968 Nobel Prize in chemistry. This appointment was a very fitting one, as Onsager was primarily involved, like Gibbs, in the application of new mathematical ideas to problems in physical chemistry, especially statistical mechanics.
On May 4, 2005 the United States Postal Service issued the American Scientists commemorative postage stamp series, depicting Josiah Willard Gibbs, John von Neumann, Barbara McClintock and Richard Feynman. (reportedly spoken by Gibbs at a Yale faculty meeting) "A mathematician may say anything he pleases, but a physicist must be at least partially sane." (1887, quoted in Meinke and Tucker 1992: 190)
Further reading
Primary:
1947. The Early Work of Willard Gibbs in Applied Mechanics. Josiah Willard Gibbs 1839-1903. Bumstead, H. A., 1903, "Josiah Willard Gibbs," American Journal of Science XVI(4). Willard Gibbs: American Genius. Willard Gibbs, American mathematical physicist par excellence. Josiah Willard Gibbs, The History of a Great Mind.
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