Théophile de Donder

Théophile Ernest de Donder ( born August 19, 1872 in Brussels, † May 11, 1957 ) was a Belgian physicist and Physical chemist. He is considered one of the pioneers of non-equilibrium thermodynamics and co-founder of the so-called "Brussels school" of thermodynamics.

Life

De Donders father was an elementary school teacher and the son took first also this profession. Besides his work as a teacher he made, however, scientifically, where he received in 1899, without ever having regularly visited a lecture, doctoral degrees in physics at the Free University of Brussels ( Université Libre de Bruxelles). It was not until about 40 years old, he was finally appointed professor in Brussels, so that he could give up the teaching profession as a livelihood.

De Donders scientific interests lay on the one in the field of general relativity, in which he was in close friendly exchanges with Albert Einstein, and others in the field of thermodynamics. He is particularly interested in the thermodynamics of non-equilibrium processes. His most important pupil was Ilya Prigogine, who continued this research and in 1977 was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Other major students were Jules de Donders Géhéniau and Léon Van Hove.

De Donder was co-founder of the Belgian Mathematical Society. In 1929 he was inducted into the Royal Belgian Academy ( Académie Royale de Belgique). Since 1958 the Academy awarded every three years to Théophile De Donder Prize for outstanding work in the field of mathematical physics.

Selected Works

• Sur la théorie of invariants intégraux (doctoral thesis ) ( 1899).
• Théorie du champ de électromagnétique Maxwell - Lorentz et du champ d' gravifique Einstein ( 1917)
• La gravifique Einsteinienne ( 1921)
• Introduction à la gravifique einsteinienne (1925 )
• Théorie de l' Electricité mathématique (1925 )
• Théorie des champs gravifiques (1926 )
• The Mathematical Theory of Relativity (1927 )
• Application de la gravifique einsteinienne (1930 )
• Théorie du calcul invariantive of variations (1931 )
• Application de la gravifique einsteinienne à l' électrodynamique des corps en mouvement (1932 )
• Thermodynamic Theory of Affinity: A Book of Principles ( 1936)