The Anatomy of Science

Born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, Gilbert Lewis received his B.S. and Ph.D. from Harvard University and did postdoctoral work in Germany at the University of Gottingen and the University of Leipzig. While teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he began his research on thermodynamics. He later moved to the University of California at Berkeley as the chair of the chemistry department. There he collected thermodynamic data---free energy and entropy data. Lewis also developed his shared electron pair theory of chemical bonding and his theory of acids and bases. Though a great physical chemist who contributed much to the science of thermodynamics, Lewis never was honored with the Nobel Prize. 020