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Walther Nernst
1864–1941 · Germany · Born in the 1800s
Nobel Chemistry 1920
Formulated the Nernst equation for electrode potentials and the third law of thermodynamics.
Nobel Prize work
The 1920 Nobel Prize in Chemistry recognized his work in thermochemistry, above all the 'Nernst heat theorem' — the third law of thermodynamics — stating that the entropy of a perfect crystal approaches zero as temperature approaches absolute zero. Formulated in 1906, it let chemists compute equilibrium constants and maximum work from calorimetric data alone, founding modern chemical thermodynamics.