In science, William Lash Miller (1866-1940), oft-cited as W. Lash Miller, was Canadian chemist noted for his 1925 article “The Method of Willard Gibbs in Chemical Thermodynamics”, cited by Herbert Salzer as a prerequisite to any type of Gibbsian thermodynamics approach to any type cellular upwards equilibrium theory reading. [1]
Overview
Miller is best remembered as one of the first proponents of Gibbsian thermodynamics in North America, a subject he first became acquainted with in Ostwald's laboratory. Although Gibbs, the first person to put the whole of thermodynamics, including chemical thermodynamics on a sound basis, was at Yale University, as Professor of Mathematical Physics, the language of his work was mathematical and the result was less readily accepted in North America than in Europe. Miller is credited with having done a great deal to make the subject intelligible, as well as palatable, to Canadian students and scientists. He is also known for studies on chemical equilibrium, reaction rates, and diffusion, and, in electrochemistry, transference numbers, over-voltage and high current electric arcs. In later years, he became interested in yeast and the effect of various substances on the growth of living cells. In addition to being a brilliant research man, he was a first-class teacher, many remember him for the enthusiasm he brought to the teaching of thermodynamics and electrochemistry. [2]
Education
Miller completed his BS in 1887 in chemistry at the University of Toronto, where his first teacher was Henry Croft, a former student of Michael Faraday. Miller then went to Germany to study at Berlin, Gottingen, and Munich, receiving the first of two PhD degrees at Munich under Baeyer in 1890. He then moved to Leipzig to work with Wilhelm Ostwald and Jacobus van't Hoff. Although appointed demonstrator in chemistry at the University of Toronto in 1891, he spent his summers in Leipzig, and in 1892 received his second PhD. In 1894, he was promoted to the rank of lecturer (the Chemistry Department then having a staff of three: one professor, one lecturer, and one demonstrator), and then to associate professor in 1900, professor in 1908, and finally to department head in 1921, retiring in 1937.
References
1. (a) Miller, W. Lash. (1925). “The Method of Willard Gibbs in Chemical Thermodynamics” (abs). University of Toronto Library; in: Chemical Reviews, 1(4):293-44, 1925.
(b) Salzer, Herbert E. (1957). “Toward a Gibbsian Approach to the Problems of Growth and Cancer” (abs) (pg. 1), Acta Biotheoretica, 12(3):135-66.
2. W. Lash Miller (overview) – Electrochem.org.
Further reading
● McBryde, W.A.E. (1989). “William Lash Miller (1866-1940)” (abs), in: Electrochemistry, Past and Present (§12:165-70). American Chemical Society.
External links
● W. Lash Miller (publications) – OpenLibrary.org.
