John G. Kirkwood

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John Gamble Kirkwood , called Jack, (born May 30, 1907 in Gotebo , Oklahoma , † August 9, 1959 in New Haven (Connecticut) ), was an American physicist and chemist who dealt with statistical mechanics.

Kirkwood's grave next to Lars Onsager's in New Haven

Life

He grew up in Wichita, Kansas. Because of his talent, he attended Caltech (on the recommendation of chemistry professor Arthur A. Noyes ) before graduating from high school in late 1923, and graduated from the University of Chicago with a bachelor's degree in physics in 1926 . In 1929 he was at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Frederick Keyes (1885 to 1976) with the work on experimental study of the dielectric constant of carbon dioxide as a function of its density doctorate . In his dissertation he measured the static dielectric constants of carbon dioxide and ammonia as a function of temperature and density. He then spent two years in Europe in 1931/32, with Peter Debye in Leipzig and Arnold Sommerfeld in Munich , among others . Then he was initially back in the laboratory for physical chemistry at MIT and from 1934 Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Cornell University . In 1937 he became an associate professor at the University of Chicago and in 1938 professor of chemistry at Cornell University.

During World War II, he dealt with the physics of explosions and shock waves on behalf of the Department of Defense, where he also worked with his colleague from Cornell University Hans Bethe , with whom he had already published an essay on statistical mechanics. For this he received the Meritorious Civilian Service Award of the US Navy in 1945 and a Presidential Certificate of Appreciation in 1947.

In 1947 he went to Caltech, where Noyes was Professor of Chemistry. From 1951 he was Stirling Professor of Chemistry at Yale University , which he remained until his untimely death due to cancer in 1959. At Yale University, he was Director of Science and Head of its Faculty. Most recently, in 1959, he was Lorentz visiting professor at the University of Leiden and visiting professor at the University of Chicago. He died of cancer.

Kirkwood dealt among other things with the theory of electrolytic solutions (Debye-Hückel theory and its basis in statistical mechanics) and mixtures of liquids, with protein electrophoresis (with the development of a new process in 1941), behavior of polymers, theory of chemical fusion and crystallization (with Elizabeth Monroe ).

He is known for the Kirkwood approximation in the statistical mechanics of liquids (1942), which he approached via the distribution function of the molecules. In the 1940s and 1950s he was also involved in the development of the statistical mechanics of irreversible processes, which was then expanded upon by his PhD student Robert Zwanzig , Hajime Mori , Ryogo Kubo and others. In particular, he was the first to express a transport coefficient using an autocorrelation function. Kirkwood is one of the originators of the BBGKY hierarchy (the other initials stand for Max Born , Nikolai Nikolajewitsch Bogoljubow , Herbert S. Green , who published with Born, and Jacques Yvon , with the authors working largely independently).

With his PhD student Frank P. Buff he developed the Kirkwood Buff theory , a theory of the statistical mechanics of solutions and of surface tension. With J. Riseman he developed a theory of the movement of macromolecules in solutions.

He received the Irving Langmuir Award in 1936 . Kirkwood received honorary degrees from the University of Chicago (1954) and the Free University of Brussels (1959). In 1942 he became a member of the National Academy of Sciences , whose Foreign Secretary (so to speak, its Foreign Minister) he was from 1954 to 1958. In this context, he campaigned for cooperation with the Soviet Union in the International Geophysical Year 1957/58. In 1944 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society and in 1949 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

In 1962 the American Chemical Society (New Haven Section) and the Faculty of Chemistry at Yale University founded the John G. Kirkwood Award , the first recipient of which was Lars Onsager .

literature

  • George Scatchard, Obituary in Journal of Chemical Physics, Volume 33, 1960, pp. 1279-1281 (the J. Chem. Phys. Edition is dedicated to Kirkwood and contributing to a symposium in his honor by the American Chemical Society, New York 1960)
  • Stuart A. Rice , Frank H. Stillinger , Biographical Memoirs National Academy of Sciences, Volume 77, 1999

Fonts (selection)

(unless cited in the footnotes)

  • I. Oppenheim (Editor) Collected Works , 8 volumes, Gordon and Breach, 1965–1968
  • The dielectric polarization of polar liquids , J. Chemical Physics, Volume 7, 1939, pp. 911-919
  • with EM Boggs (Elizabeth Monroe) The radial distribution function in liquids , J. Chemical Physics, Volume 10, 1942, pp. 394-402 (Kirkwood approximation)
  • Critique of the free volume theory of the liquid state , J. Chem. Phys., Volume 18, 1950, pp. 380-382
  • with EK Maun, Bernie Alder Radial distribution functions and the equation of state of a fluid composed of rigid spherical molecules , J. Chem. Phys., Volume 18, 1950, pp. 1040-1047
  • Statistical mechanics of liquid solutions , Chem. Rev., Volume 19, 1936, pp. 275-307
  • Statistical mechanical theory of transport processes , part 1,2, J. Chem. Phys., Volume 14, 1946, pp. 180-201, Errata, p. 347, Volume 15, 1947, pp. 72-76, Errata S. 155
  • with Robert Zwanzig, I. Oppenheim Statistical mechanical theory of transport processes , Part VII, The coefficient of thermal conductivity of monatomic liquids , J. Chem. Phys., Volume 22, 1954, pp. 783-790

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. biographical data, publications and Academic pedigree of John Gamble Kirkwood at academictree.org, accessed on February 15 2018th
  2. Published with Keyes in Physical Review, Volume 36, 1930, p. 754
  3. Brinkley, Kirkwood The theory of the propagation of shock waves , Physical Review, Volume 71, 1947, pp. 606-611
  4. Bethe, Kirkwood Critical behavior of solid solutions in the order-disorder transformation , J. Chem. Physics, Volume 7, 1939, pp. 578-582
  5. On the theory of strong electrolytic solutions , J. Chem. Phys., Volume 2, 1934, pp. 767-781, Kirkwood, JC Poirier The statistical mechanical basis of the Debye-Hückel theory of strong electrolytes , J. Phys. Chem., Vol. 58, 1954, pp. 591-596
  6. Kirkwood Statistical mechanics of mixtures of solutions , J. Chem. Phys., Volume 3, 1935, pp. 300-313
  7. Elizabeth Monroe Boggs (1913-1996), later known as an activist for mentally retarded children
  8. Kirkwood, Monroe On the theory of fusion , J. Chem. Phys., Vol. 8, 1940, p. 845
  9. Kirkwood, The Statistical Mechanical Theory of Transport Processes I. General Theory, Journal of Chemical Physics, Volume 14, 1946, p. 180, Part II (Transport in Gases), Volume 15, 1947, p. 72
  10. Kirkwood, Buff Statistical mechanical theory of solutions , Part 1, J. Chem. Phys., Volume 19, 1951, pp. 774-777
  11. Buff, Kirkwood The statistical mechanical theory of surface tension , J. Chem. Phys., Volume 17, 1949, pp. 338-343
  12. Kirkwood, Riseman The intrinsic viscosities and diffusion constants of flexible macromolecules in solution , J. Chem. Phys., Volume 16, 1948, pp. 565-573, Errata p. 1626
  13. ^ Member History: John G. Kirkwood. American Philosophical Society, accessed October 24, 2018 .