Edward A. Guggenheim

Edward Guggenheim
Born Edward Armand Guggenheim
11 August 1901
Manchester
Died 9 August 1970 (aged 68)[1]
Fields Chemical thermodynamics
Institutions University of Reading
University of Cambridge
Stanford University
University College London
Imperial College London[2]
Montreal Laboratory for Atomic Energy
Alma mater Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge[1]
Notable awards Fellow of the Royal Society (1946)[1]

Edward Armand Guggenheim FRS[1] (11 August 1901 in Manchester – 9 August 1970) was an English thermodynamicist and professor of chemistry at the University of Reading.[3][2]

Education

Guggenheim was educated at Charterhouse School[1] and the University of Cambridge (M. A., Sc. D., ).

Career

Guggenheim is noted for his 1933 publication of the Modern Thermodynamics by the Methods of Willard Gibbs, a 206 page, detailed study, with text, figures, index, and preface by F. G. Donnan, showing how the analytical thermodynamic methods developed by Willard Gibbs leads in a straightforward manner to relations such as phases, constants, solution, systems, and laws, that are unambiguous and exact. This book, together with Gilbert N. Lewis and Merle Randall’s 1923 textbook Thermodynamics and the Free Energy of Chemical Substances, are said to be responsible for the inception of the modern science of chemical thermodynamics.[4]

In 1939, Guggenheim co-authored a volume entitled Statistical Thermodynamics with Ralph Fowler.[5]

In 1949, Guggenheim published Thermodynamics – an Advanced Treatment for Chemists and Physicists.[6] In the preface to this book, he states that no thermodynamics book written before 1929 even attempts an account of any of the following matters:

  1. The modern definition of heat given by Max Born in 1921.
  2. The quantal theory of the entropy of gases and its experimental verification.
  3. Peter Debye’s formulae for the activity coefficients of electrolytes.
  4. The use of electrochemical potentials of ions
  5. The application of thermodynamics to dielectrics and to paramagnetic substances.

From 1946 to 1966 Guggenheim was a professor of chemistry at the University of Reading, and subsequently Emeritus Professor in the University.

In 1972, the E. A. Guggenheim Memorial Fund was established by friends and colleagues. The income from the fund is used to (a) award an annual prize and (b) to provide a biennial or triennial memorial lecture on some topic of chemistry or physics appropriate to the interests of Guggenheim.[7]

Honours and awards

Guggenheim was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1946.[1] His nomination reads

“ Distinguished for his important contributions to thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, and for the applications of these branches of physical science in many fields, e.g. electrolytic solutions, electro-chemical potentials, magnetic and electrostatic energy, surface and interfacial phenomena, stellar interiors, chemical equilibria and reaction kinetics, co-operative assemblies, theory of super-lattices, etc.

Author of "Modern Thermodynamics by the Methods of Willard Gibbs" (1933). Joint author with Professor R. H. Fowler of "Statistical Thermodynamics" (1939).[8]

 ”

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Tompkins, F. C.; Goodeve, C. F. (1971). "Edward Armand Guggenheim 1901-1970". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 17: 303. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1971.0012.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Guggenheim, Edward Armand (1901–1970)". The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33598.
  3. ↑ Letter exchanged with Linus Pauling - Feb, 24, 1937
  4. ↑ Ott, Bevan J.; Boerio-Goates, Juliana (2000). Chemical Thermodynamics – Principles and Applications. Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-530990-2.
  5. ↑ O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Ralph Fowler", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews.
  6. ↑ Guggenheim, E. A. (1949). Thermodynamics – an Advanced Treatment for Chemists and Physicists. North-Holland Publishing Company.
  7. ↑ E. A. Guggenheim Memorial Fund - established in 1972
  8. ↑ "Library and Archive Catalogue". London: The Royal Society. Retrieved 2013-11-27.