Lars Onsager (1903-1976)

Awarded the Prize “for the discovery of the reciprocal relations bearing his name, which are fundamental for the thermodynamics of irreversible processes.”

American chemist. Onsager was born at now Oslo in Norway on November 27, 1903. He was educated at the Norwegian Institute of Technology. He moved to America in 1928 obtained his Ph.D. at Yale in 1935. He spent virtually his whole career at Yale, serving as J. W. Gibbs Professor of Theoretical Chemistry from 1945 until 1972. Onsager died in Coral Gables, Florida on October 5, 1976.