Walther Nernst, German physical chemist, 1906

Walther Nernst, German physical chemist, 1906. Photogravure after a photograph by Nicola Perscheid, 1906. Walther Hermann Nernst (1864-1941) was Professor of Chemistry at Gottingen (1891), Berlin (1905), and Director of the Berlin Physics Institute (1925). Nernst was concerned with the application of physics to chemical problems and became famous for his research on electrochemistry and thermodynamics. He proposed the heat theorem (the third law of thermodynamics) in 1906 and investigated the heat of solids at low temperatures in connection with quantum theory. He also discovered the atomic chain reaction in photochemistry. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1920. From a collection of portraits of scientists published by Photographische Gesellschaft, Berlin, c 1910. Dimensions: 460mm x 340mm. ©SSPL/Science Museum