In thermodynamics, John Kirkwood (1907-1959) was an American physical chemist noted for his 1961 Chemical Thermodynamics, co-written with Irwin Oppenheim, which includes a rather decent appendix section on mathematical thermodynamics. [1]
Of note, Kirkwood was on the faculty at Yale, for a short period, at the same time Lars Onsager (1903-1976) was the J. Willard Gibbs professor of chemistry.
Some argue that Kirkwood laid the foundations for the standard method for estimating free energy differences, namely perturbation theory and thermodynamic integration, by building on the chemical affinity and extent of reaction work of Theophile De Donder. [2]
Education
Kirkwood was a protégé of Arthur Noyes, notable for having done, following Fritz Haber, free energy change calculations of certain reactions. [2] Noyes convinced Kirkwood to enroll at Caltech before finishing high school, which he did for two years. He completed his BS in physics in 1926 at the University of Chicago and PhD in chemistry in 1929 at MIT.
References
1. Kirkwood, John G. and Oppenheim, Irwin. (1961). Chemical Thermodynamics. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co. Inc.
2. Chipot, Christphe and Pohorille, Andrew. (2007). Free Energy Calculations: Theory and Applications in Chemistry and Biology (1.1.1: Pioneers of Free Energy Calculations, pgs. 1-2). Springer.
External links
● John Gamble Kirkwood – Wikipedia.
