# | Individual | Year | Medal | Significance |
1. | Jacobus van’t Hoff | 1901 | Chemistry | Published Studies in Chemical Dynamics (1884), in which he described a new method for determining the order of a reaction using graphics, applied the laws of thermodynamics to chemical equilibria, and introduced the modern thermodynamic interpretation of chemical affinity; won for his work with solutions. |
2. | Wilhelm Ostwald | 1909 | Chemistry | For work on catalysis and associated fundamental studies on chemical equilibria and rates of reaction; also outlined cessation thermodynamic (energetic) views; and stated the energetic imperative (1912). |
3. | Johannes van der Waals | 1910 | Physics | For his 1873 work in developing an equation of state for liquids and solids based on the work of Clausius and Gibbs. |
4. | Wilhelm Wien | 1911 | Physics | For work in radiation thermodynamics. |
5. | Max Planck | 1918 | Physics | For originated quantum theory by explaining black body radiation via his postulate of energy quanta (energy element), based on the 1872 work of Boltzmann.
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6. | Fritz Haber | 1918 | Chemistry | Published Thermodynamics of Technical Gas Reactions (1905), the first systematic study of all the thermodynamic data necessary for the calculation of the free energy changes in a group of important reactions; won for the synthesis of ammonia. |
7. | Walther Nernst | 1920 | Chemistry | Established his heat theorem (1905), now called the third law of thermodynamics, which describes the behavior of matter as temperatures approaching absolute zero; a theory which provided a means of determining chemical affinities or free energies (and therefore equilibrium points) of chemical reactions from heat measurements; won for his thermochemistry work. |
8. | Frederick Soddy | 1921 | Chemistry | For work in radioactivity; published some of the first work in economic thermodynamics. |
9. | Albert Einstein | 1921 | Physics | Twenty-eight of his first thirty papers were in thermodynamics; explained the nature of mass-energy equivalence (1905), and building on the work of Planck explained the photoelectric effect using the postulate that light interacts with matter as discrete packets of energy or light quanta; won for his work in theoretical physics.
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10. | Henri Bergson | 1927 | Literature | In his 1907 Creative Evolution, and works to follow, worked to outline a unified theory of religion, evolution, and thermodynamics. |
11. | Albert Szent-Gyorgyi | 1931 | Physiology | For isolating vitamin C; was a bioenergetics pioneer; In 1974 proposed to replace the term "negative entropy" (or negentropy) with “syntropy”, which he pictured as a force which causes living things to reach "higher and higher levels of organization, order and dynamic harmony"; followed this up with his 1977 article "Drive in Living Matter to Perfect Itself". |
12. | Charles Sherrington | 1932 | Physiology | Published his philosophical Man on His Nature, with entropy, evolution, life discussions. |
13. | Erwin Schrödinger | 1933 | Physics | Published What is Life? (1944) and Statistical Thermodynamics (1946); won for his work in quantum mechanics, i.e. the development of the Schrodinger equation (1926). |
14. | Heike Kamerlingh-Onnes | 1936 | Physics | Using the Joule-Thomson effect, reached a temperature of 0.9 K (1908); won for investigations on the properties of matter at low temperatures which led, inter alia, to the production of liquid helium. |
15. | Enrico Fermi | 1938 | Physics | While writing the appendix for the Italian edition of the book Foundation of Einstein's Relativity, written by A. Kopff, pointed out, for the first time, the fact that hidden inside the famous Einstein equation (E = mc²), there was a enormous amount of energy (nuclear energy) to be exploited; author of the 1936 Thermodynamics; won for his discovery of new radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation, and for his related discovery of nuclear reactions brought about by slow neutrons. |
16. | Percy Bridgman | 1946 | Physics | Published A Condensed Collection of Thermodynamic Formulas (1925), Thermodynamics of Electrical Phenomena in Metals (1934), and The Nature of Thermodynamics (1941); won for work in high pressure physics. |
17. | William Giauque | 1949 | Chemistry | Student of the Lewis school; won contribution to the field of chemical thermodynamics, particularly concerning the behavior of substances at extremely low temperatures. |
18. | Bertrand Russell | 1950 | Literature | Noted for his 1927 lecture on heat death and religion; won for “his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought.” |
19. | Fritz Lipmann | 1953 | Medicine | Developed the thermodynamics of ATP function (1941); later used this work to discover co-enzyme A. |
20. | Lars Onsager | 1968 | Chemistry | For the discovery of the reciprocal relations (1931), fundamental equations in the thermodynamics of irreversible processes. |
21. | Paul Samuelson | 1970 | Economics | Second generation student of Gibbs, via Edwin Wilson; won for his development of static and dynamic economic economics theory (utilized physics analogs). |
22. | Christian Anfinsen | 1972 | Chemistry | For work on the thermodynamic hypothesis of protein folding. |
23. | Tjalling Koopmans | 1975 | Economics | People as "molecules" of economic life theory (1947); entropy applied to economics in 1979. |
24. | Ilya Prigogine | 1977 | Chemistry | For his contributions to nonequilibrium thermodynamics, particularly his theory of dissipative structures. |
25. | John Avery | 1995 | Peace | Published Information Theory and Evolution (2003), which argues that "life feeds on Gibbs free energy"; won for efforts with the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. |
26. | John Fenn | 2002 | Chemistry | PhD dissertation: “The Thermodynamics of Hydrochloric Acid in Methanol-Water Mixtures” (1940), wrote Engines, Energy, and Entropy: a Thermodynamics Primer (1982); won for work in the field of mass spectrometry, specifically for the electrospray ionization technique often used to identify and analyze biological macromolecules. |