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Definition: ONSAGER, Lars, 1903-1976 from A Biographical Dictionary of People in Engineering: From Earliest Records to 2000

Norwegian American chemical engineer, chemist and inventor; to US (1928), US citizen (1945), chemical solutions, statistical mechanics, devised gaseous diffusion method for manufacture of uranium 235, Onsager law of dilute solutions (1931), Onsager reciprocal theorem (1930s), Onsager relations sometimes called the fourth law of thermodynamics, faculty at Brown Univ. (1929-1933), Yale Univ. (1934-1972), NAS (1947), Nobel prize (1968) (BEST BM60 CB58 CDOSB DOT L&M MWBD RS24 WWWIA WWWIS: see References.)

Onsager, Lars

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Norwegian-born US physical chemist. He worked on the application of the laws of thermodynamics to systems not in equilibrium, and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1968 for his discovery of reciprocal relations, fundamental for the thermodynamics of irreversible processes. In 1949 he established a firm statistical basis for the theory of liquid crystals. Career Onsager was born in Christiania (now Oslo) and studied at Norges Tekniske Høgskole in Trondheim. After working in Zürich, Switzerland, as research assistant to Dutch chemist Peter Debye , Onsager emigrated to the USA in 1928. As a lecturer, first at Brown University and from 1933 at Yale, he was a failure: the students named his courses ‘Sadistical Mechanics’ and ‘Advanced Norwegian I and II’. At Brown University Onsager submitted a PhD thesis on what is now a classic work on reversible processes, but the authorities turned it down. It was published in 1931 but ignored until the late 1940s; in 1968 it earned Onsager…
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Full text Article Onsager, Lars (1903-1976)

From The Hutchinson Dictionary of Scientific Biography
Place : Russian Federation Subject : biography, chemistry Norwegian-born US theoretical chemist who was awarded the 1968 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on reversible processes. Onsager was born in Oslo on 27 November 1903. He was educated at the local high school and then at the Norges…
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Full text Article Onsager, Lars (1903–1976).

From Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary
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Full text Article Onsager

From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary Full text Article Biographical Names
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Full text Article Onsager, Lars

From American Biographies: American Scientists
(b. 1903–d. 1976) chemist Lars Onsager was one of the foremost practitioners of statistical mechanics, which uses statistics, classical physics, and quantum mechanics to explain theoretically the properties of chemical systems. He authored the Onsager reciprocal relation, today considered by many to…
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Full text Article ONSAGER, LARS

From Encyclopedia of Nobel Laureates 1901-2017 Full text Article CHEMISTRY
ONSAGER, LARS
Nationality: American b. 27 November 1903, Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway; d. 5 October 1976, Coral Gables, FL, USA For the discovery of the reciprocal relations bearing his name, which are fundamental for the thermodynamics of irreversible process Onsager was a man whose brilliance amounted to…
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Full text Article Onsager, Lars

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
(born Nov. 27, 1903, Oslo, Nor.—died Oct. 5, 1976, Coral Gables, Fla., U.S.) Norwegian-born U.S. chemist. He immigrated to the U.S. and taught principally at Yale University. His development of a general theory of irreversible chemical processes, described as the “fourth law of thermodynamics ,” …
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Full text Article Chemistry

From The Oxford Encyclopedia of the History of American Science, Medicine, and Technology
Chemistry has its origins in alchemy, pharmacy, and natural philosophy. It emerged as a separate discipline beginning in the 1780s. Chemistry in colonial and early republic America, like all the sciences, remained essentially a branch of European and British science until the 1820s. During these…
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Full text Article 27 November 1903

From The Hutchinson Chronology of World History Full text Article 1903
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Full text Article Nobel Prize for Chemistry

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Year Winner(s)1 Awarded for 1901 Jacobus van't Hoff (Netherlands) laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure 1902 Emil Fischer (Germany) sugar and purine syntheses 1903 Svante Arrhenius (Sweden) theory of electrolytic dissociation 1904 William Ramsay (UK) discovery of rare gases in air and their…
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