Josiah Willard Gibbs

Gibbs, Josiah Willard (1839–1903), U.S. physicist best known for his pioneering work in chemical thermodynamics and his contributions to statistical mechanics. In On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances (1876, 1878) he states Gibbs's Phase Rule for chemical systems. In the course of his research on the electromagnetic theory of light, he made fundamental contributions to the art of vector analysis.

See also: Thermodynamics.