In thermodynamics, Lars Onsager (1903-1975) was a Norwegian-born American chemical engineer and physical chemist noted for his 1931 reciprocal relations, which founded the subject of near-equilibrium thermodynamics, and for his 1968 win of the Nobel Prize in chemistry for the formulation of these relations. [1]
Education
Onsager completed his BS in chemical engineering in 1925 at Norwegian Institute of Technology and then went on to studying with Dutch physical chemist Peter Debye at Zurich University for three years. In 1928 Onsager moved to the United States where he studied at John Hopkins University and Brown University. His thesis on reversible processes was considered incomprehensible by the chemistry, physics and mathematics departments at Brown University. He eventually received his PhD from Yale University in 1935, with a dissertation entitled "Solutions of the Mathieu equation of period 4 pi and certain related functions." In 1945, he was awarded the J. Willard Gibbs Professor of Theoretical Chemistry.
References
1. (a) Claesson, S. (1968). “Presentation Speech”, NobelPrize.org.
(b) Onsager, Lars. (1968). “The Motions of Ions: Principles and Concepts”, Nobel Lecture, 11 December.
(c) Lars Onsager (biography) – NobelPrize.org.
Further reading
● Onsager, Lars. (1931). “Reciprocal Relations in Irreversible Processes I” (abs) (pdf), Physics Review, 37:405-26.
● Onsager, Lars. (1931). “Reciprocal Relations in Irreversible Processes II” (abs) (pdf), Physics Review, 37:2265-79.
External links
● Lars Onsager – Wikipedia.
● The Lars Onsager Archive – NTNU Library.
