Josiah Willard Gibbs

The foundations of classical thermodynamics, as taught in textbooks today, were laid down in nearly complete form by Josiah Willard Gibbs more than a century ago. This article presents a portrait of Gibbs, a quiet and modest man who was responsible for some of the most important advances in the history of science. V Kumaran is a professor of chemical engineering at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. His research interests include statistical mechanics and fluid mechanics.