Theodore William Richards
Theodore William Richards | |
---|---|
Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1914) Franklin Medal (1916) | |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Physical chemistry |
Institutions | Harvard University |
Doctoral advisor | Josiah Parsons Cooke[citation needed](see Kopperl: "Theodore W. Richards: America's First Nobel Laureate Chemist", in Profiles in Chemistry, in Journal of Chemical Education, 1983, Vol. 60, Issue 9, page 738. |
Doctoral students | Gilbert N. Lewis Farrington Daniels Malcolm Dole Charles Phelps Smyth Hobart Hurd Willard James B. Conant |
Theodore William Richards (January 31, 1868 – April 2, 1928) was an American physical chemist and the first
Biography
Theodore Richards was born in
Beginning in 1878, the Richards family spent two years in Europe, largely in England, where Theodore Richards' scientific interests grew stronger. After the family's return to the United States, he entered Haverford College, Pennsylvania in 1883 at the age of 14, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1885. He then enrolled at Harvard University and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1886, as further preparation for graduate studies.
Richards continued on at Harvard, taking as his dissertation topic the determination of the atomic weight of oxygen relative to hydrogen. His doctoral advisor was Josiah Parsons Cooke.[
In 1896, Richards married Miriam Stuart Thayer. The couple had one daughter, Grace Thayer (who married
Richards maintained interests in both art and music. Among his recreations were sketching, golf, and sailing. He died at Cambridge, Massachusetts, on April 2, 1928, at the age of 60. According to one of his descendants, Richards suffered from "chronic respiratory problems and a prolonged depression."[3]
He was a
Scientific research
About half of Richards's scientific research concerned
Richards was the first to show, by chemical analysis, that an element could have different atomic weights. He was asked to analyze samples of naturally occurring
Although Richards's chemical determinations of atomic weights were highly significant for their time, they have largely been superseded. Modern scientists use electronic instrumentation, such as
Other scientific work of Theodore Richards included investigations of the compressibilities of atoms, heats of solution and neutralization, and the electrochemistry of amalgams. His investigation of electrochemical potentials at low temperatures was among the work that led, in the hands of others, to the Nernst heat theorem and the Third law of thermodynamics, although not without heated debate between Nernst and Richards.[11]
Richards also is credited with the invention of the adiabatic calorimeter as well as the nephelometer, which was devised for his work on the atomic weight of strontium.
Legacy and honors
- Member of the American Philosophical Society (1902)[12]
- Lowell Lectures (1908)
- Davy Medal (1910)
- Faraday Lectureship(1911)
- Willard Gibbs Medal(1912)
- President of the American Chemical Society (1914)
- Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1914)
- Franklin Medal (1916)
- President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1917)
- Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy (1918)
- Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London(1919)
- President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences President (1919 – 1921)
- Lavoisier Medal (1922)
- Le Blanc Medal (1922)
- Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1923)
- Member of the International Atomic Weights Committee
- Theodore Richards Medal (1932, awarded posthumously)
Selected writings
- Richards, Theodore W.; Forbes, George Shannon (1906). "Energy Changes Involved in the Dilution of Zinc and Cadmium Amalgams". Carnegie Institution Report. Carnegie Institution of Washington: 1–68.
theodore richards atomic.
- Determinations of atomic weights. Washington: Carnagie Institution of Washington. 1910.
- Richards, Theodore W. (1913). The Scientific Work of Morris Loeb. Harvard University Press.
theodore richards.
- Richards, Theodore W. (1915). "Concerning the Compressibilities of the Elements, and Their Relations to Other Properties". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 37 (7). American Chemical Society: 1643–1656. PMID 16576032.
See also
- Mass spectrometry
- Jöns Jakob Berzelius
- Farrington Daniels
- Gilbert Newton Lewis
- Jean Stas
- Theodore W. Richards House
References
- ^ "Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1914 - Presentation". Retrieved 2007-12-24.
- ISBN 978-0-684-87288-9.
Tuxedo Park.
- See pages 1 – 3 for William Theodore Richards and page 126 for Greenough Thayer Richards. - ISBN 978-0-684-87288-9.
Tuxedo Park.
- ^ "Theodore W. Richards". Notable Names Database. Retrieved 2011-09-18.
- PMID 16576032.
- .
- .
- ISBN 0-19-850341-5.
- ]
- ^ Harrow, Benjamin (1920). Eminent Chemists of Our Time. Van Nostrand. p. 74.
eminent chemists richards.
- ^ Nernst, Walther (1926). The New Heat Theorem. Methuen and Company, Ltd.- Reprinted in 1969 by Dover - See especially pages 227 – 231 for Nernst's comments on Richards work
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
Further reading
- Conant, James Bryant (1974). "Theodore William Richards". Biographical Memoirs. National Academy of Sciences (U.S.). Vol. 44. pp. 251–286.
- Huddleston, John Henry (1907). Secretary's Report: Harvard Class of 1886. New York. pp. 132–133.
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External links
- Theodore William Richards on Nobelprize.org including the Nobel Lecture, December 6, 1919 Atomic Weights
- Theodore Richards Medal