Gilbert N. Lewis
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{{Infobox Scientist
|name = {{PAGENAME}}
|box_width =
|image =GN_Lewis_large.jpg
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|caption =Lewis in the Berkeley Lab
|birth_date = [[October 23]], [[1875]]
|birth_place =
|death_date = [[March 23]], [[1946]]
|death_place = [[Berkeley]]
|residence =
|citizenship =
|nationality = [[United States|American]]
|ethnicity =
|field = [[physical chemistry|physical chemist]]
|work_institutions =
|alma_mater =
|doctoral_advisor =
|doctoral_students =
|known_for = [[Lewis dot structure]]s<br/>[[valence bond theory]]<br/>[[chemical thermodynamics]]<br/>[[photon]]
|author_abbrev_bot =
|author_abbrev_zoo =
|influences = [[Irving Langmuir]]<br/>[[Merle Randall]]
|influenced =
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}}'''Gilbert Newton Lewis''' ([[October 23]], [[1875]] - [[March 23]], [[1946]]) was a famous [[United States|American]] [[physical chemistry|physical chemist]] known for his 1902 [[Lewis dot structure]]s, his paper "The Atom and the Molecule", which is the foundation of modern [[valence bond theory]], developed in coordination with [[Irving Langmuir]], and his 1923 textbook ''Thermodynamics and the Free Energy of Chemical Substances'', written in coordination with [[Merle Randall]], one of the founding books in [[chemical thermodynamics]]. In 1926, Lewis coined the term "[[photon]]" for the smallest unit of radiant energy. He was a brother of [[Alpha Chi Sigma]], the professional chemistry fraternity.
==Career==
After earning his Ph.D., he stayed as an instructor for a year before taking a traveling fellowship, studying under the physical chemist [[Wilhelm Ostwald]] at [[Leipzig]] and [[Walther Nernst]] at [[Göttingen]]<ref>{{cite journal
| quotes = yes
|last=Edsall
|first=J T
|authorlink=
|year=[[1974]]|month=Nov.
|title=Some notes and queries on the development of bioenergetics. Notes on some "founding fathers" of physical chemistry: J. Willard Gibbs, Wilhelm Ostwald, Walther Nernst, Gilbert Newton Lewis
|journal=[[Mol. Cell. Biochem.]]
|volume=5
|issue=1-2
|pages=103–12
| publisher = | location = | issn =
| pmid = 4610355
| bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
|doi=10.1007/BF01874179
}}
</ref>. He then returned to Harvard as an instructor for three more years, and in [[1904]] left to become superintendent of weights and measures for the Bureau of Science of the [[Philippines|Philippine Islands]] in [[Manila]]. The next year he returned to [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]] when the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT) appointed him to a faculty position, in which he had a chance to join a group of outstanding physical chemists under the direction of [[Arthur Amos Noyes]]. He quickly rose in rank, becoming assistant professor in [[1907]], associate professor on [[1908]], and full professor in [[1911]]. He left MIT to become professor of physical chemistry and dean of the [[Berkeley College of Chemistry|College of Chemistry]] at the [[University of California, Berkeley]] in [[1912]]. Lewis Hall at Berkeley, built in [[1948]], is named in his honor.
==Timeline==
[[Image:Lewis-cubic-notes.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Lewis' '''[[cubical atom]]s''' (1902)]]
In [[1908]] he published the first of several papers on [[theory of relativity|relativity]], in which he derived the [[mass]]-[[energy]] relationship in a different way from [[Albert Einstein]]'s derivation. He also introduced the thermodynamic concept of [[fugacity]] in a paper, "The osmotic pressure of concentrated solutions, and the laws of the perfect solution," ''J. Am. Chem. Soc.'' '''30''', 668-683 (1908).
On [[June 21]], [[1912]], he married Mary Hinckley Sheldon, daughter of a Harvard professor of [[Romance languages]]. They had two sons, both of whom became chemistry professors, and a daughter.
In [[1913]], he was elected to the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]], but in [[1934]] he resigned in a dispute over the internal politics of that institution.
In [[1916]], he formulated the idea that a [[covalent bond]] consisted of a shared pair of [[electron]]s and defined the term [[odd molecule]] when an electron is not shared. His ideas on [[chemical bond]]ing were expanded upon by [[Irving Langmuir]] and became the inspiration for the studies on the nature of the chemical bond by [[Linus Pauling]]. This year he published what became known as the [[Lewis structure]] and the [[Cubical atom]] model.
In [[1919]], by studying the [[magnetism|magnetic]] properties of solutions of [[oxygen]] in [[liquid]] [[nitrogen]], he found that O<sub>4</sub> [[molecule]]s were formed. This was the first evidence for [[tetratomic oxygen]].
In [[1923]], he formulated the electron-pair theory of [[acid-base reactions]]. In the so-called ''Lewis theory'' of [[acid]]s and [[base (chemistry)|base]]s, a "[[Lewis acid]]" is an ''electron-pair acceptor'' and a "[[Lewis base]]" is an ''electron-pair donor''. This year he also published his book ''Valence and the structure of atoms and molecules''.
Based on work by [[Willard Gibbs|J. Willard Gibbs]], it was known that chemical reactions proceeded to an [[Chemical equilibrium|equilibrium]] determined by the [[Thermodynamic free energy|free energy]] of the substances taking part. Lewis spent 25 years determining free energies of various substances. In [[1923]] he and [[Merle Randall]] published the results of this study, which helped formalize modern [[chemical thermodynamics]].
In [[1926]], he coined the term "[[photon]]" for the smallest unit of radiant energy.
Lewis was the first to produce a pure sample of deuterium oxide ([[heavy water]]) in [[1933]]. By accelerating [[deuteron]]s (deuterium [[atomic nucleus|nuclei]]) in [[Ernest Lawrence|Ernest O. Lawrence's]] [[cyclotron]], he was able to study many of the properties of atomic nuclei. During the 1930s, he was faculty advisor and mentor to [[Glenn T. Seaborg]], who was retained for post-doctoral work as Lewis' personal research assistant. Seaborg went on to win the [[1951]] [[Nobel Prize]] in Chemistry and have the element [[seaborgium|Seaborgium]] named in his honor while he was still alive.
==Later years==
In the last years of his life, he established that [[phosphorescence]] of [[organic chemistry|organic]] molecules involves an excited '''triplet''' state (a state in which electrons that would normally be paired with opposite [[spin (physics)|spin]]s are instead excited to have their [[Spin (physics)|spin vector]]s in the ''same'' direction) and measured the magnetic properties of this [[Spin triplet|triplet]] state.
During his career he published on many other subjects besides those mentioned in this article, ranging from the nature of [[light]] quanta to the [[economics]] of price stabilization.
He died at age 70 of a heart attack while working in his laboratory in Berkeley. He had been working on an experiment with liquid [[hydrogen cyanide]], and deadly fumes from a broken line were leaking into the laboratory when a graduate student found the professor's lifeless body under a workbench. The coroner said Gilbert N. Lewis died of coronary artery disease; however, some believe that the death may have been a suicide. UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus William Jolly, who reported the various views on Gilbert N. Lewis' death in his 1987 history of the University of California, Berkeley’s College of Chemistry, ''From Retorts to Lasers'', said one higher-up in the department believed the suicide theory.
A possible explanation for the suicide theories was depression following a lunch with [[Irving Langmuir]]. On the day of Gilbert N. Lewis' death, Irving Langmuir and Gilbert N. Lewis met for lunch at the University of California, Berkeley. It was reported by associates that Gilbert N. Lewis came back from the meeting in a dark mood. He reportedly sat down for a morose game of bridge with some colleagues, and then went back to work in his lab. An hour later, Gilbert N. Lewis was dead. Irving Langmuir's papers at the Library of Congress confirm that Irving Langmuir was on the University of California, Berkeley campus that day. Irving Langmuir had gone to the University of California, Berkeley to receive an honorary degree.
==References==
{{reflist}}
==See also==
*[[History of the molecule]]
==External links==
*[http://dbhs.wvusd.k12.ca.us/webdocs/Chem-History/Lewis-1916/Lewis-1916.html The Atom and the Molecule] (1916)
*[http://www.chemheritage.org/classroom/chemach/chemsynthesis/lewis-langmuir.html Gilbert Newton Lewis (1875–1946) and Irving Langmuir (1881–1957)] - Chemical Achievers
*[http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Lewis.html Gilbert Lewis] - Eric Weisstein's World of Scientific Biography
*[http://www.apsidium.com/theory/lewis_acid.htm Lewis Acid-Base Concept] - Overview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Gilbert Newton}}
[[Category:1875 births]]
[[Category:Members of the National Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:1946 deaths]]
[[Category:American chemists]]
[[Category:Physical chemists]]
[[Category:Thermodynamicists]]
[[Category:Relativists]]
[[Category:University of California, Berkeley faculty]]
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