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Lars Onsager

Norwegian American physical chemist and theoretical physicist, Nobel laureate in Chemistry (1968).

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The Norwegian American physical chemist and theoretical physicist Lars Onsager was awarded the 1968 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.[1][2]

Key facts and history

In 1925 he published a correction to the Debye-Hückel theory of electrolytic solutions.[3] He traveled to Zürich and confronted Peter Debye, who then invited him to become his assistant at ETH.[3] He was let go by Brown in 1933 due to the Great Depression.[4] He obtained his Ph.D. from Yale in 1935 with a dissertation on Mathieu functions.[5][6]

Onsager became a U.S. citizen in 1945 and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1947.[7] Onsager's birth occurred on 27 November 1903 in Oslo.[5]

What the research sources say

The Norsk biografisk leksikon states that Onsager's reciprocal relations provided the foundation for the modern theory of irreversible processes.[5] The same source notes that he made fundamental contributions to electrolyte theory via the Debye-Hückel-Onsager equation and to phase transitions in the Ising model.[5] That source adds that Onsager contributed to theories of electrolytes, colloids, superfluids, superconductors, turbulence, stochastic analysis, electronic properties of metals, and dielectric materials.[5] The Norsk biografisk leksikon describes Onsager as a famously poor lecturer, with his courses jokingly called "Norwegian I and II" or "Sadistical Mechanics".[5]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Lars Onsager" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Longuet-Higgins, "Lars Onsager. 27 November 1903-5 October 1976", Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 1978, p. 443–471 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Lars Onsager" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Montroll, Elliott W., "Lars Onsager", Physics Today, February 1977, p. 77; "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1968", Nobelprize.org; "World Scientific Series in 20th Century Physics: Volume 17 : The Collected Works of Lars Onsager", 1996 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Lars Onsager" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Lars Onsager - Biographical", Nobelprize.org (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Lars Onsager" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Lars Onsager – Norsk biografisk leksikon", Nbl.snl.no, 1991-12-06 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. "Lars Onsager – Norsk biografisk leksikon", Nbl.snl.no, 1991-12-06. facts only, no text reused. nbl.snl.no
  6. Wikipedia, "Lars Onsager" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Onsager, "Deviations from Ohm's Law in Weak Electrolytes", The Journal of Chemical Physics, 1934-09-01, p. 599–615 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Lars Onsager" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Lars Onsager", www.nasonline.org; "Lars Onsager", American Academy of Arts & Sciences (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Lars Onsager (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Test yourself

Three questions drawn from this entry’s sources. Pick an answer to check it.

1. In what year did Lars Onsager die?

Correct.

Not quite. The answer is 1976.

From the source: “He remained in Florida until his death from an aneurysm in Coral Gables, Florida in 1976.”

2. In what year was Lars Onsager born?

Correct.

Not quite. The answer is 1903.

From the source: “Lars Onsager (27 November 1903 – 5 October 1976) was a Norwegian American physical chemist and theoretical physicist. He held the Gibbs Professorship of Theoretical Chemistry at Yale University. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry”

3. In which place was Lars Onsager born?

Correct.

Not quite. The answer is Kristiania, Norway.

Answers checked against the source article

Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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