Lars Onsager 37175 219528725 2008-06-15T17:43:07Z DOI bot 6652755 Citation maintenance. Initiated by [[User:Fconaway|Fconaway]]. You can [[WP:DOI|use this bot]] yourself! Please [[User:DOI_bot/bugs|report any bugs]]. {{Infobox_Scientist | name = Lars Onsager | image = Lars Onsager2.jpg | caption = Lars Onsager | birth_date = {{birth date|1903|11|27|mf=y}} | birth_place = Kristiania ([[Oslo]]), [[Norway]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1976|10|5|1903|11|27}} | death_place = [[Coral Gables]], [[Florida]], [[United States|U.S.]] | residence = [[United States]] | nationality = [[Norway]], [[United States|U.S.]] | field = [[physical chemistry|Physical chemist]] | alma_mater = [[Norwegian Institute of Technology]] | work_institution = [[ETH Zürich]]<br />[[Johns Hopkins University]]<br />[[Brown University]]<br />[[Yale University]] | doctoral_students = [[Joseph L. McCauley]] | known_for = [[Onsager reciprocal relations]] and the exact solution to the two-dimensional [[Ising model]] | prizes = [[Image:Nobel prize medal.svg|20px]] [[Nobel Prize/Chemistry|Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] (1968) | religion = | footnotes = }} '''Lars Onsager''' ([[November 27]], [[1903]] &ndash; [[October 5]], [[1976]]) was a [[Norway|Norwegian]]–[[United States|American]] [[physical chemistry|physical chemist]] and [[theoretical physicist]], winner of the 1968 [[Nobel Prize/Chemistry|Nobel Prize in Chemistry]]. He had the Gibbs Professorship of Theoretical Chemistry at [[Yale University]]. == Biography == Lars Onsager was born in Kristiania (today's [[Oslo]]), [[Norway]]. His father was a [[lawyer]]. After completing secondary school in Oslo, he attended the [[Norwegian Institute of Technology|Norwegian Institute of Technology (NTH)]] in [[Trondheim]], graduating as a [[chemical engineering|chemical engineer]] in 1925. In 1925 he arrived at a correction to the [[Peter Debye|Debye]]–[[Erich Hueckel|Hückel]] theory of [[electrolyte|electrolytic]] [[solution]]s, to specify [[Brownian movement]] of [[ion]]s in solution, and during 1926 published it. He traveled to [[Zürich]], where Peter Debye was teaching, and confronted Debye, telling him his theory was wrong. He impressed Debye so much that he was invited to become Debye's assistant at the [[ETH Zürich|Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH)]], where he remained until 1928. ===Johns Hopkins University=== Eventually in 1928 he went to the [[United States|United States of America]] to take a faculty position at the [[Johns Hopkins University]] in [[Baltimore, Maryland]]. At JHU he had to teach freshman classes in [[chemistry]], and it quickly became apparent that, while he was a genius at developing theories in physical chemistry, he had little talent for teaching. He was dismissed by JHU after one semester. === Brown University=== On leaving JHU, he accepted a position (involving the teaching of [[statistical mechanics]] to graduate students in chemistry) at [[Brown University]] in [[Providence, Rhode Island]], where it became clear that he was no better at teaching advanced students than freshmen, but he made significant contributions to statistical mechanics and [[thermodynamics]]. The only graduate student who could really understand his lectures on electrolyte systems, Raymond Fuoss, worked under him and eventually joined him on the Yale chemistry faculty. In 1933, when the [[Great Depression]] limited Brown's ability to support a faculty member who was only useful as a researcher and not a teacher, he was let go by Brown, being hired after a trip to [[Europe]] by [[Yale University]], where he remained for most of the rest of his life, retiring in 1972. His research at Brown was concerned mainly with the effects on [[diffusion]] of [[temperature gradient]]s, and produced the [[Onsager reciprocal relations]], a set of equations published in 1929 and, in an expanded form, in 1931, in [[statistical mechanics]] whose importance went unrecognized for many years. However, their value became apparent during the decades following [[World War II]], and by 1968 they were considered important enough to gain Onsager that year's [[Nobel Prize/Chemistry|Nobel Prize in Chemistry]]. In 1933, just before taking up the position at Yale, Onsager traveled to [[Austria]] to visit [[electrochemistry|electrochemist]] [[Falkenhagen|Hans Falkenhagen]]. He met Falkenhagen's sister-in-law, Margrethe Arledter. They were married on September 7, 1933, and had three sons and a daughter. ===Yale University=== At Yale, an embarrassing situation occurred: he had been hired as a postdoctoral fellow, but it was discovered that he had never received a [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph. D.]] While he had submitted an outline of his work in reciprocal relations to the [[Norwegian Institute of Technology]], they had decided it was too incomplete to qualify as a doctoral dissertation. He was told that he could submit one of his published papers to the Yale faculty as a dissertation, but insisted on doing a new research project instead. His dissertation, entitled, "Solutions of the [[Mathieu function|Mathieu equation]] of period 4 pi and certain related functions", was beyond the comprehension of the [[chemistry]] and [[physics]] faculty, and only when some members of the [[mathematics]] department, including the chairman, insisted that the work was good enough that ''they'' would grant the doctorate if the chemistry department would not, was he granted a Ph. D. in chemistry in [[1935]]. Even before the dissertation was finished, he was appointed assistant professor in [[1934]], and promoted to associate professor in 1940. He quickly showed at Yale the same traits he had at JHU and Brown , he produced brilliant theoretical research, but was incapable of giving a lecture at a level that a student (even a graduate student) could comprehend. He was also unable to direct the research of graduate students, except for the occasional outstanding one. During the late 1930s, Onsager researched the [[dipole]] theory of [[dielectric]]s, making improvements for another topic that had been studied by Peter Debye. However, when he submitted his paper to a journal that Debye edited in 1936, it was rejected: Debye would not accept Onsager's ideas until after [[World War II]]. During the 1940s, he studied the [[statistical mechanics|statistical-mechanical theory]] of [[phases of matter|phase]] transitions in [[solid]]s, deriving a mathematically elegant theory which was enthusiastically received. He obtained the exact solution for the two dimensional [[Ising model]] at the critical point in 1944. In 1945, Onsager was [[naturalization|naturalized]] as an [[United States|American]] citizen, and the same year he was awarded the title of '''J. Willard Gibbs Professor of Theoretical Chemistry.''' This was particularly appropriate because Onsager, like [[Willard Gibbs]], had been involved primarily in the application of [[mathematics]] to problems in [[physics]] and [[chemistry]] and, in a sense, could be considered to be continuing in the same areas where Gibbs had pioneered. In 1947, he was elected to the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]], and in 1950 he joined the ranks of [[Alpha Chi Sigma]]. After [[World War II]], Onsager researched new topics of interest. He proposed a theoretical explanation of the [[superfluidity|superfluid]] properties of [[liquid]] [[helium]] in 1949; two years later the [[physics|physicist]] [[Richard Feynman]] independently proposed the same theory. He also worked on the theories of [[liquid crystal]]s and the electrical properties of [[ice]]. While on a [[Fulbright scholarship]] to [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge University]], he worked on the magnetic properties of [[metal]]s. He developed important ideas on the quantization of magnetic flux in metals. He was awarded the [[Lorentz Medal]] in 1958 and the '''[[Nobel Prize]]''' in Chemistry in 1968. ==After Yale== [[Image:Kirkwood onsager.jpg|thumb|right|Graves of Onsager and Kirkwood]] At age 70, Onsager was retired involuntarily as an emeritus professor at Yale, in 1973. He was then appointed Distinguished University Professor at the [[University of Miami]] ([[Florida]]). At the Center for Theoretical Studies at the University of Miami he remained active in guiding and inspiring postdoctoral students as his teaching skills, although not his lecturing skills, had improved during the course of his career. He developed interests in semiconductor physics, biophysics and radiation chemistry. However, his death came before he could produce any breakthroughs comparable to those of his earlier years. He remained in Florida until his death from an aneurysm in Coral Gables, Florida in 1976. Onsager had a rivalry with Professor [[John Gamble Kirkwood]] at Yale that they both took to their graves, placed next to one another at New Haven's [[Grove Street Cemetery]]. While Kirkwood's tombstone has a long list of awards and positions, including the [[American Chemical Society]] Award in Pure Chemistry, the Richards Medal, and the Lewis Award, Onsager's tombstone, in its original form, simply said "Nobel Laureate."<ref>[http://www.grovestreetcemetery.org/self_guided_grove_street_cemetery_tours.htm Grove Street Cemetery<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> In 1991, his children added an asterisk after "Nobel Laureate," and "*etc." in the lower right corner of the stone. ==References== The Collected Works of Lars Onsager (with Commentary) World Scientific Series in 20th Century Physics - Vol. 17 Editors: Per Chr Hemmer, Helge Holden and Signe Kjelstrup Ratkje (World Scientific, Singapore 1996) ISBN 981-02-2563-6. ''Constitutions of matter : mathematically modelling the most everyday of physical phenomena'' by Martin H. Krieger, University of Chicago Press, 1996. ISBN 0-226-45304-9 Contains a detailed pedagogical discussion of Onsager's solution of the phase transition of the 2-D [[Ising model]]. *{{cite journal | title = Lars Onsager. 27 November 1903-5 October 1976 | author = H. Christopher Longuet-Higgins; Michael E. Fisher | journal = Biographical Memoirs (National Academy of Sciences) | volume = 60 | issue = | pages = 182–233 | year = 1991 | url = http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=6061&page=182 | doi = }} {{reflist}} ==External links== * Onsager's [http://www.nobel.se/chemistry/laureates/1968/onsager-bio.html Nobel Foundation biography] * Onsager's Nobel Lecture [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1968/onsager-lecture.html The Motion of Ions: Principles and Concepts] * [http://www.ub.ntnu.no/formidl/hist/tekhist/tek5/eindex.htm The Lars Onsager Archive] *[http://www.nndb.com/people/579/000100279/ Lars Onsager profile, NNDB]. *[http://www.math.ntnu.no/onsager/ The Lars Onsager Lecture and The Lars Onsager Professorship]. {{Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureates 1951-1975}} {{Persondata |NAME= Onsager, Lars |ALTERNATIVE NAMES= |SHORT DESCRIPTION= [[physical chemistry|Physical chemist]] |DATE OF BIRTH= [[November 27]], [[1903]] |PLACE OF BIRTH= [[Christiania]], ([[Oslo]]), [[Norway]] |DATE OF DEATH= [[October 5]], [[1976]] |PLACE OF DEATH= [[Coral Gables]], [[Florida]], [[United States|U.S.]] }} {{DEFAULTSORT:Onsager, Lars}} [[Category:1903 births]] [[Category:1976 deaths]] [[Category:Brown University faculty]] [[Category:National Medal of Science laureates]] [[Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States]] [[Category:Nobel laureates in Chemistry]] [[Category:Norwegian chemists]] [[Category:Norwegian engineers]] [[Category:Norwegian Institute of Technology alumni]] [[Category:Norwegian physicists]] [[Category:Norwegian-Americans]] [[Category:People from Oslo]] [[Category:Physical chemists]] [[Category:Theoretical physicists]] [[Category:Thermodynamicists]] [[Category:Yale University alumni]] [[Category:Burials at Grove Street Cemetery]] [[ar:لارس أونساغر]] [[ca:Lars Onsager]] [[da:Lars Onsager]] [[de:Lars Onsager]] [[es:Lars Onsager]] [[fr:Lars Onsager]] [[it:Lars Onsager]] [[sw:Lars Onsager]] [[nl:Lars Onsager]] [[ja:ラルス・オンサーガー]] [[no:Lars Onsager]] [[nov:Lars Onsager]] [[nds:Lars Onsager]] [[pl:Lars Onsager]] [[pt:Lars Onsager]] [[ru:Онзагер, Ларс]] [[sl:Lars Onsager]] [[fi:Lars Onsager]] [[sv:Lars Onsager]] [[tr:Lars Onsager]] [[zh:拉斯·昂萨格]]