Nernst, Walther Hermann 1864-1941
German physical chemist and Nobel Prize winner

Born in Briesen, West Prussia, he studied physics at the universities of Zurich, Berlin, Graz and W�rzburg, and in 1887 he became assistant to Wilhelm Ostwald at Leipzig. In 1891 he moved to G�ttingen, first as associate professor and from 1894 as Professor of Physical Chemistry. He succeeded Hans Landolt in the chair of physical chemistry at the University of Berlin in 1905. During World War I he engaged in military activities, including gas warfare. From 1922 to 1924 he was president of the Physikalisch Technische Reichsanstalt, but then returned to the chair of physics at the university. He retired in 1933, being out of favour with the Nazi regime. Nernst is regarded as one of the co-founders of physical chemistry, along with Ostwald, Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff and Svante August Arrhenius. His earliest research was in electrochemistry and his development of the theory of electrode potential and the concept of solubility product were particularly important. He devised experimental methods for measuring dielectric constant, pH, and other physico-chemical quantities. The electrochemical work led to a special interest in thermodynamics and in 1906 he enunciated his heat theorem, which has come to be regarded as a statement of the third law of thermodynamics. This enables equilibrium constants for chemical reactions to be calculated from heat data. He later became concerned with the quantum theory and in particular with photochemistry. He received the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1920. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the Chemical Society as early as 1911 and became a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 1932.

Bibliography: Kurt A G Mendelssohn, The World of Walter Nernst (1973)