Rudolf Clausius

People note German mathematician and physicist Rudolf Julius Emanuel Clausius for his work on the laws of thermodynamics.

Clausius, born Rudolf Gottlieb, started his education at the school of his father. After a few years, he went to the gymnasium in Stettin (now Szczecin). Clausius studied mathematics and physics with Gustav Magnus, Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet, and Jakob Steiner at the University of Berlin, which graduated him in 1844. He also studied history with Leopold von Ranke. During 1847, he got his doctorate from the University of Halle on optical effects in the atmosphere of Earth.

He then served as professor of physics at the royal artillery and engineering school in Berlin and Privatdozent at the Berlin University.

People consider Clausius as one of the central founders of the science of thermodynamics. His restatement of principle, known as the Carnot cycle, of Sadi Carnot put the theory of heat on a truer and sounder basis. His most important paper,

On the Moving Force of Heat

, published in 1850, first stated the basic ideas of the second law of thermodynamics.

In 1855, Clausius served as professor at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, the Swiss federal institute of technology in Zürich.

Clausius won honorary membership of the institution of engineers and shipbuilders in Scotland in 1859.

In 1865, Clausius introduced the concept of entropy.

At the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Clausius stayed until 1867. He moved during that year to Würzburg and, two years later in 1869 to Bonn.

Clausius won fellowship of the royal society of London in 1868.

In 1870, Clausius introduced the virial theorem, which applied to heat.

In 1870, Clausius organized an ambulance corps in the Franco-Prussian war. Battle wounded him and left him with a lasting disability. People awarded him the iron cross in 1870 for his services. Clausius won Huygens medal in 1870.

Adelheid Rimpham Clausius, wife of Rudolf Clausius, died in childbirth in 1875 and left her widower to raise their six children. He continued to teach with less time for research thereafter.

Clausius won membership of the royal Swedish academy of sciences in 1878.

Clausius received Copley medal of the royal society of London in 1879.

Clausius won foreign membership of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in Rome in 1880. Clausius won membership of the German academy of sciences Leopoldina in 1880.

Clausius won honorary doctorate from the University of Würzburg in 1882.

Clausius won Poncelet prize in 1883.

In 1886, Clausius remarried Sophie Sack Clausius and then fathered another child.

Clausius won Pour le Mérite for arts and sciences in 1888.

Clausius died in Bonn, Germany.