Théophile de Donder

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In the background Théophile Ernest de Donder, in the foreground Paul Dirac

Théophile Ernest de Donder (born August 19, 1872 in Brussels ; † May 11, 1957 ibid) was a Belgian physicist and physical chemist . He is considered one of the pioneers of non-equilibrium thermodynamics and co-founder of the so-called "Brussels School" of thermodynamics .

Life

De Donder's father was an elementary school teacher and the son initially took up this profession. In addition to his work as a teacher, however, he continued his scientific education and in 1899, without ever having attended a regular lecture, received the doctoral degree in physics at the Free University of Brussels ( Université libre de Bruxelles ). It was not until he was over 40 that he was finally appointed professor in Brussels, so that he could give up teaching as a livelihood.

De Donder's scientific interests lay on the one hand in the field of general relativity , where he was in close friendly exchange with Albert Einstein , and on the other in the field of thermodynamics. He was particularly interested in the thermodynamics of non-equilibrium processes. His most important student was Ilya Prigogine , who continued this research and received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1977 . Other important students of de Donder were Jules Géhéniau and Léon Van Hove .

De Donder was a co-founder of the Belgian Mathematical Society . In 1929 he was accepted into the Royal Belgian Academy ( Académie royale de Belgique ). Every three years since 1958, the Academy has awarded the Théophile De Donder Prize for outstanding work in the field of mathematical physics.

Selected Works

  • Sur la théorie des invariants intégraux (doctoral thesis) (1899).
  • Théorie du champ électromagnétique de Maxwell-Lorentz et du champ gravifique d'Einstein (1917)
  • La gravifique Einsteinienne (1921)
  • Introduction à la gravifique einsteinienne (1925)
  • Théorie mathématique de l'électricité (1925)
  • Théorie des champs gravifiques (1926)
  • The Mathematical Theory of Relativity (1927)
  • Application de la gravifique einsteinienne (1930)
  • Theory invariantive du calcul des variations (1931)
  • Application de la gravifique einsteinienne à l'électrodynamique des corps en mouvement (1932)
  • Thermodynamic Theory of Affinity: A Book of Principles (1936)

Web links

Commons : Théophile de Donder  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Acad. Roy. Belg., Bull. Cl. Sc., P. 169, 1968.
personal data
SURNAME Donder, Théophile de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Donder, Théophile Ernest de (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian physicist
DATE OF BIRTH August 19, 1872
PLACE OF BIRTH Brussels
DATE OF DEATH May 11, 1957
Place of death Brussels