In information thermodynamics, Harvey S. Leff (1937-) is an American physicist noted for his 1990 book Maxwell’s Demon, on entropy and Maxwell’s demon as discussed in computing, and for 1996 ‘energy spreading’ theory of entropy, which in circa 2000 he seems to have infused American organic chemist Frank Lambert’s ‘energy dispersal’ theory of entropy, to promote in chemistry teaching textbooks. [1]
Education
Leff completed his BS in 1959 at the Illinois Institute of Technology and his MS in 1960 at Northwestern University, both in physics. He completed his PhD in physics at the University of Iowa in 1963 with a dissertation on “Statistical Theory of Energy-Level Spacing Distributions for Complex Spectra”. [2] Leff currently is physics professor emeritus at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.
References
1. (a) Leff, Harvey S. (1996). “Thermodynamic Entropy: The Spreading and Sharing of Energy”, American Journal of Physics, 64: 1261-71.
(b) Leff, Harvey S. and Rex, Andrew F. (2002). Maxwell’s Demon 2: Entropy, Classical and Quantum Information, Computing. CRC Press.
2. (a) Harvey Leff (brief resume) – California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.
(b) Leff, Harvey S. (1963). “Statistical Theory of Energy-Level Spacing Distributions for Complex Spectra”. dissertation/thesis, Iowa State University.
Further reading
● Leff, Harvey S. (2007). “Entropy, Its Language, and Interpretation”, Found. Phys. 37:1744-66.
● Leff, Harvey S. (2012). “Removing the Mystery of Entropy and Thermodynamics—Part I” (abs), The Physics Teacher, Jan, 50(1):28-31.
● Leff, Harvey S. (2012). “Removing the Mystery of Entropy and Thermodynamics—Part II”, The Physics Teacher, Jan, 50(2):87-90.
● Leff, Harvey S. (2012). “Removing the Mystery of Entropy and Thermodynamics—Part III”, The Physics Teacher, Jan, 50(3):170-72.
● Leff, Harvey S. (2012). “Removing the Mystery of Entropy and Thermodynamics—Part IV”, The Physics Teacher, Jan, 50(4):215-17.
● Leff, Harvey S. (2012). “Removing the Mystery of Entropy and Thermodynamics—Part V”, The Physics Teacher, Jan, 50(2):274-76.
External links
● Leff, Harvey S. (1937-) – WorldCat Identities.
