Editing Gilbert N. Lewis (section)

==Biography==

===Early life===
Lewis was born in 1875 and raised in [[Weymouth, Massachusetts]], where there exists a street named for him, G.N. Lewis Way, off Summer Street.  Additionally, the wing of the new Weymouth High School Chemistry department has been named in his honor. Lewis received his primary education at home from his parents, Frank Wesley Lewis, a lawyer of independent character, and Mary Burr White Lewis. He read at age three and was intellectually precocious. In 1884 his family moved to [[Lincoln, Nebraska]], and in 1889 he received his first formal education at the university preparatory school.

In 1893, after two years at the [[University of Nebraska]], Lewis transferred to [[Harvard University]], where he obtained his [[B.S.]] in 1896. After a year of teaching at [[Phillips Academy]] in [[Andover, Massachusetts|Andover]], Lewis returned to Harvard to study with the physical chemist [[Theodore William Richards|T. W. Richards]] and obtained his Ph.D. in 1899 with a dissertation on [[electrochemical potential]]s.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hildebrand |first1=Joel H. |title=Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences |date=1958 |publisher=National Academy of Sciences |location=Washington, D.C., U.S.A. |volume= 31 |pages=209–235 |chapter=Gilbert Newton Lewis |chapter-url=http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/lewis-gilbert-n.pdf}}; see p. 210. Lewis's Ph.D. thesis was titled "Some electrochemical and thermochemical relations of zinc and cadmium amalgams". He published the results jointly with his supervisor T.W. Richards.</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Richards |first1=Theodore William |last2=Lewis |first2=Gilbert Newton |title=Some electrochemical and thermochemical relations of zinc and cadmium amalgams |journal=Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences |date=1898 |volume=34 |issue=4 |pages=87–99 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101050586039;view=1up;seq=97|doi=10.2307/20020864 |jstor=20020864 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> After a year of teaching at Harvard, Lewis took a traveling fellowship to Germany, the center of [[physical chemistry]], and studied with [[Walther Nernst]] at [[Göttingen]] and with [[Wilhelm Ostwald]] at [[Leipzig]].<ref>{{cite journal
|last=Edsall
|first=J. T.
|date=November 1974
|title=Some notes and queries on the development of bioenergetics. Notes on some "founding fathers" of physical chemistry: J. Willard Gibbs, Wilhelm Ostwald, Walther Nernst, Gilbert Newton Lewis
|journal=[[Mol. Cell. Biochem.]]
|volume=5 |issue=1–2 |pages=103–12
|doi=10.1007/BF01874179
|pmid = 4610355
|s2cid=5682498
}}
</ref> While working in Nernst's lab, Lewis apparently developed a lifelong enmity with Nernst. In the following years, Lewis started to criticize and denounce his former teacher on many occasions, calling Nernst's work on his heat theorem "''a regrettable episode in the history of chemistry''".<ref>[http://listverse.com/2015/04/07/10-fierce-but-productive-rivalries-between-dueling-scientists/ ''10 Fierce (But Productive) Rivalries Between Dueling Scientists''] Radu Alexander. Website of Listverse Ltd. April 7th 2015. Retrieved 2016-03-24.</ref> A [[Sweden|Swedish]] friend of Nernst's, [[:sv:Wilhelm Palmær (kemist)|Wilhelm Palmær]], was a member of the Nobel Chemistry Committee. There is evidence that he used the Nobel nominating and reporting procedures to block a [[Nobel Prize]] for Lewis in [[thermodynamics]] by nominating Lewis for the prize three times, and then using his position as a committee member to write negative reports.<ref>Coffey (2008): 195-207.</ref>

===Harvard, Manila, and MIT===
After his stay in Nernst's lab, Lewis returned to Harvard in 1901 as an instructor for three more years. He was appointed instructor in [[thermodynamics]] and [[electrochemistry]]. In 1904 Lewis was granted a leave of absence and became Superintendent of Weights and Measures for the Bureau of Science in [[Manila]], [[Philippines]]. The next year he returned to [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]] when the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT) appointed him to a faculty position, in which he had a chance to join a group of outstanding physical chemists under the direction of [[Arthur Amos Noyes]]. He became an assistant professor in 1907, associate professor in 1908, and full professor in 1911.

===University of California, Berkeley===
G. N. Lewis left MIT in 1912 to become a professor of physical chemistry and dean of the [[Berkeley College of Chemistry|College of Chemistry]] at the [[University of California, Berkeley]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/gilman.html|title=Gilman Hall University of California, Berkeley - National Historic Chemical Landmark|website=American Chemical Society|language=en|access-date=2019-03-09}}</ref> On June 21, 1912, he married Mary Hinckley Sheldon, daughter of a Harvard professor of [[Romance languages]]. They had two sons, both of whom became chemistry professors, and a daughter. In 1913, he joined the [[Alpha Chi Sigma]] at Berkeley, the professional chemistry fraternity.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://axs.berkeley.edu/about.html|title=About - Alpha Chi Sigma {{!}} Sigma Chapter|website=axs.berkeley.edu|access-date=2019-03-09|archive-date=July 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210729031036/https://axs.berkeley.edu/about.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Lewis' graduate advisees at Berkeley went on to be exceptionally successful with the [[Nobel Committee]]. 14 [[Nobel Prize|Nobel prizes]] were eventually awarded to the men he took as students.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Physics |first=American Institute of |date=2021-09-24 |title=Willard Libby - Session I |url=https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/4743-1 |access-date=2023-08-17 |website=www.aip.org |language=en}}</ref> The best-known of these include [[Harold Urey]] (1934 Nobel Prize), [[William F. Giauque]] (1949 Nobel Prize), [[Glenn T. Seaborg]] (1951 Nobel Prize), [[Willard Libby]] (1960 Nobel Prize), [[Melvin Calvin]] (1961 Nobel Prize).<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":6">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1949/giauque/lecture/|title=The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1949|website=NobelPrize.org|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-09}}</ref><ref name=":7">{{Cite web|url=https://www.mediatheque.lindau-nobel.org/research-profile/laureate-libby|title=Research Profile - Willard Frank Libby|website=Lindau Nobel Mediatheque|language=en|access-date=2019-03-09}}</ref> Due to his efforts, the college of chemistry at Berkeley became one of the top chemistry centers in the world.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":8">{{Cite web|url=https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/gilbert-newton-lewis|title=Gilbert Newton Lewis {{!}} Lemelson-MIT Program|website=lemelson.mit.edu|access-date=2019-03-09|archive-date=2020-04-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200411010110/https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/gilbert-newton-lewis|url-status=dead}}</ref>

While at Berkeley he also refused entry to women, including preventing [[Margaret Melhase]] from conducting graduate studies.<ref name="SFGATE">{{cite web |last1=Davidson |first1=Keay |title=Margaret Fuchs -- worked on secret atomic bomb project |url=https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Margaret-Fuchs-worked-on-secret-atomic-bomb-2489618.php |website=SFGATE |date=8 September 2006 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513204640/https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Margaret-Fuchs-worked-on-secret-atomic-bomb-2489618.php |archive-date=2021-05-13}}</ref><ref name="PattonArticle">{{Cite journal|last=Patton|first=Dennis D.|date=1999-04-01|title=History Corner: How Cesium-137 Was Discovered by an Undergraduate Student|url=https://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/40/4/18N|journal=Journal of Nuclear Medicine|volume=40|issue=4|pages=18N–31N|issn=0161-5505|pmid=10210206}}</ref> Melhase had previously co-discovered [[Cesium-137]] with Seaborg as an undergraduate. In 1913, he was elected to the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gilbert N. Lewis |url=https://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/deceased-members/20000757.html |access-date=2023-10-03 |website=www.nasonline.org}}</ref> He was elected to the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1918.<ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Gilbert+N.+Lewis&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2023-10-03 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> He resigned in 1934, refusing to state the cause for his resignation; it has been speculated that it was due to a dispute over the internal politics of that institution or to the failure of those he had nominated to be elected. His decision to resign may also have been sparked by his resentment over the award of the 1934 Nobel Prize for chemistry to his student, [[Harold Urey]], for his 1931 isolation of [[deuterium]] and the confirmation of its [[Spectral line|spectrum]]. This was a prize Lewis almost certainly felt he should have shared for his efforts to purify and characterize [[heavy water]].<ref>Coffey (2008): 221-22.</ref>