Josiah Willard Gibbs

Josiah Willard Gibbs
Josiah Willard Gibbs
Born	(1839-02-11)February 11, 1839 New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
Died	April 28, 1903(1903-04-28) (aged 64) New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
Nationality	American
Fields	Physics, chemistry, mathematics
Institutions	Yale University
Alma mater	Yale University
Thesis	On the form of the teeth of wheels in spur gearing (1863)
Doctoral advisor	Hubert Anson Newton
Doctoral students	Edwin Bidwell Wilson, Irving Fisher, Henry Andrews Bumstead, Lynde Wheeler, Lee De Forest
Known for	Chemical thermodynamics Chemical potential Statistical mechanics Statistical ensemble Gibbs entropy Phase space Physical optics Gibbs free energy Phase rule Gibbs paradox Vector calculus Cross product Gibbs phenomenon Gibbs–Helmholtz equation Gibbs–Duhem equation Gibbs algorithm Gibbs measure Gibbs state Gibbs–Thomson effect Gibbs isotherm Gibbs–Donnan effect Gibbs–Marangoni effect Gibbs lemma Gibbs' inequality Gibbs distribution
Influences	Rudolf Clausius, Hermann Grassmann, James Clerk Maxwell, Ludwig Boltzmann
Notable awards	Rumford Prize (1880) ForMemRS (1897) Copley Medal (1901)
Signature

Josiah Willard Gibbs (February 11, 1839 – April 28, 1903) was an American scientist who made important theoretical contributions to physics, chemistry, and mathematics. His work on the applications of thermodynamics was instrumental in transforming physical chemistry into a rigorous inductive science. Together with James Clerk Maxwell and Ludwig Boltzmann, he created statistical mechanics (a term that he coined), explaining the laws of thermodynamics as consequences of the statistical properties of ensembles of the possible states of a physical system composed of many particles. Gibbs also worked on the application of Maxwell's equations to problems in physical optics. As a mathematician, he invented modern vector calculus (independently of the British scientist Oliver Heaviside, who carried out similar work during the same period).

In 1863, Yale awarded Gibbs the first American doctorate in engineering. After a three-year sojourn in Europe, Gibbs spent the rest of his career at Yale, where he was professor of mathematical physics from 1871 until his death. Working in relative isolation, he became the earliest theoretical scientist in the United States to earn an international reputation and was praised by Albert Einstein as "the greatest mind in American history". In 1901, Gibbs received what was then considered the highest honor awarded by the international scientific community, the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of London, "for his contributions to mathematical physics".