Josiah Willard Gibbs

One of the principal objects of research in my department of knowledge is to find the point of view from which the subject appears in the greatest simplicity.

Josiah Willard Gibbs (February 11, 1839 – April 28, 1903) was an American theoretical physicist, chemist and mathematician. One of the greatest American scientists of all time, he devised much of the theoretical foundation for chemical thermodynamics as well as physical chemistry.

From his writings

• His true monument lies not on the shelves of libraries, but in the thoughts of men, and in the history of more than one science.
  • From Gibbs's obituary for Rudolf Clausius (1889)^{[specific citation needed]}

• One of the principal objects of theoretical research is to find the point of view from which the subject appears in the greatest simplicity.
  • From Gibbs's letter accepting the Rumford Medal (1881). Quoted in A. L. Mackay, Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (London, 1994)

Attributed

• Mathematics is a language.
  • At a Yale faculty meeting, during a discussion of language requirements in the undergraduate curriculum^{[citation needed]}

• A mathematician may say anything he pleases, but a physicist must be at least partially sane.
  • Cited in R. B. Lindsay, "On the Relation of Mathematics and Physics," Scientific Monthly 59, 456 (Dec. 1944)

Quotes about Gibbs

• In the last generation, this country produced one of the most eminent men of science in the whole world. His name was quite unknown among us while he lived, and it is still unknown. Yet I may say without too great exaggeration that when I heard it mentioned in a professional assembly in the Netherlands two years ago, everybody got down under the table and touched their foreheads to the floor. His name was Josiah Willard Gibbs.
  • Albert Jay Nock, The Theory of Education in the United States (1932), p. 104. Full Book

External links

• "Josiah Willard Gibbs", at the MacTutor History of Mathematics archive .
• Friel, Charles Michael, "J. Willard Gibbs".
• Jolls, Kenneth R., and Daniel C. Coy, "Gibbs models". Iowa State University.