Gilbert N. Lewis
American physical chemist
- Fame55.7
- Momentum0.0
- Scientists rank#69
Source-basedStable
- Fame55.7
- Momentum0.0
- Scientists rank#69
- Wikipedia5.5K
Lived 1875–1946, aged 71United States
United StatesSummary
Updated 2026-06-09
He gave chemistry the covalent bond, electron-pair diagrams still taught in every intro class, and the word "photon" — but 41 Nobel nominations never converted to a prize, the most famous snub in the field's history.
Biography
About
Gilbert Newton Lewis was born in 1875 in Weymouth, Massachusetts, earned his PhD from Harvard, and arrived at Berkeley in 1912 to teach chemistry. He rebuilt chemical thermodynamics into something mathematically rigorous that working chemists could use, then in 1916 proposed the theory of bonding and electron pairs that now bears his name. He measured free energies, purified heavy water as part of isotope separation work starting in 1933, redefined acids and bases, and in 1926 coined "photon" while working on relativity and quantum problems. His students collected Nobels — Urey, Giauque, Seabo…
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Fame
Stable55.7
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
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Momentum0.0
Historical23.5
Source confidence60.0
Completeness70.0
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