Edward A. Guggenheim

Edward Armand Guggenheim (1901 - 1970) was an English thermodynamicist and professor of chemistry at the University of Reading, noted for his 1933 publication of the Modern Thermodynamics by the Methods of Willard Gibbs, a 206 page, detailed study, with text, figures, index, and preface by F. G. Donnan, showing how the analytical thermodynamic methods developed by Willard Gibbs leads in a straightforward manner to relations such as phases, constants, solution, systems, and laws, that are unambiguous and exact. This book, together with Gilbert N. Lewis and Merle Randall’s 1923 textbook Thermodynamics and the Free Energy of Chemical Substances, are said to be responsible for the inception of the modern science of chemical thermodynamics.^[1]

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Education

• M. A., Sc. D., FRS

Overview

In 1933, Guggenheim 1933 published the Modern Thermodynamics by the Methods of Willard Gibbs.

In 1939, Guggenheim co-authored a volume entitled Statistical Thermodynamics with Ralph Fowler, who is one of the central founders of the zeroth law of thermodynamics.^[2]

In 1949, Guggenheim published Thermodynamics – an Advanced Treatment for Chemists and Physicists.^[3] In the preface to this book, he states that no thermodynamics book written before 1929 even attempts an account of any of the following matters:

1. The modern definition of heat given by Born in 1921.
2. The quantal theory of the entropy of gases and its experimental verification.
3. Debye’s formulae for the activity coefficients of electrolytes.
4. The use of electrochemical potentials of ions
5. The application of thermodynamics to dielectrics and to paramagnetic substances.

From 1946 to 1966 Guggenheim was a professor of chemistry at the University of Reading, and subsequently Emeritus Professor in the University.

In 1972, the E. A. Guggenheim Memorial Fund was established by friends and colleagues. The income from the fund is used to (a) award an annual prize and (b) to provide a biennial or triennial memorial lecture on some topic of chemistry or physics appropriate to the interests of Guggenheim.^[4]

See also

• Chemical thermodynamics

References