Gibbs

Josiah Willard Gibbs

Born: 11 Feb 1839 in New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Died: 28 April 1903 in New Haven, Connecticut, USA

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J. Willard Gibbs obtained a doctorate from Yale in 1863, then from 1866 to 1869 he studied in Europe. On his return he was appointed professor of mathematical physics at Yale in 1871.

He worked on statistical mechanics and vector analysis. His work on vector analysis, using ideas of Grassmann, produced a system much more easily applied to physics than that of Hamilton. His work on statistical mechanics was important in providing a mathematical framework for quantum theory and for Maxwell's theories.

Gibbs' most important papers were Graphical Methods in the Thermodynamics of Fluids (1873), A Method of Geometrical Representation of the Thermodynamic Properties of Substances by Means of Surfaces (1873) and On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances (1876).

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica
  3. L P Wheeler, Josiah Willard Gibbs. The History of a Great Mind (New Haven, 1952).
  4. E B Wilson, Reminiscences of Gibbs by a Student and
  5. Colleague, Scient. Mon. 32 (1931), 211-227.
  6. Josiah Willard Gibbs, Proc. London Math. Soc. 1 (1904), 19-21.
  7. R Seeger, Men of physics : J. Willard Gibbs, American mathematical physicist par excellence (Oxford, 1974).
  8. M Rukeyser, Willard Gibbs (New York, 1947). 
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JOC/EFR February 1996