"Willard Gibbs is the type of the imagination at work in the world. His story is that of an opening up which has had its effect on our lives and our thinking; and, it seems to me, it is the emblem of the naked imagination —which is called abstract and impractical, but whose discoveries can be used by anyone who is interested, in whatever "field"— an imagination which for me, more than that of any other figure in American thought, any poet, or political, or religious figure, stands for imagination at its essential points."
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Mathematicians from the United StatesPeople from New HavenPhysicists from the United StatesYale University alumniChemists from the United States
Original Language: English
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Muriel Rukeyser, "Josiah Willard Gibbs," Physics Today 2(2) (Feb. 1949), p. 6.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Josiah_Willard_Gibbs
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Josiah Willard Gibbs
Josiah Willard Gibbs (February 11 1839 – April 28 1903) was an American theoretical physicist, chemist and mathematician. One of the greatest American scientists of all time, he devised much of the theoretical foundation for chemical thermodynamics, as well as physical chemistry and statistical mechanics.
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