Irving Langmuir

Irving Langmuir (Brooklyn, 31 gennaio 1881 – Woods Hole, 16 agosto 1957) è stato un fisico e chimico statunitense che, in oltre quarant'anni di intensa attività, acquistò fama internazionale come uno dei più esperti e fecondi ricercatori del XX secolo.

Nel 1903 si era laureato in ingegneria metallurgica alla Columbia University e aveva continuato gli studi in quella di Gottinga, in Germania.

Tornato negli Stati Uniti, nel 1906 era diventato professore all'istituto di tecnologia Stevens di Hoboken.

Nel 1909 venne assunto nei laboratori di ricerca della General Electric Company, a Schenectady, dove restò fino al 1950 e di cui, dal 1932, fu co-direttore.

In questo lungo periodo, Langmuir diede molti, vari e importanti contributi: aumentò la durata e l'efficienza della lampadina e delle prime valvole termoioniche; elaborò una teoria della valenza atomica; coniò i termini di elettrovalenza e covalenza; determinò i tempi di fusione di solidi refrattari; costruì una pompa ad alto vuoto basata sulla diffusione del gas nel vapore del mercurio; studiò il comportamento dell'idrogeno atomico ad alte temperature.

Diede il suo nome a una legge riguardante il passaggio di elettroni in tubi elettronici: tale legge fissa la dipendenza della corrente dalle caratteristiche geometriche del tubo e dal potenziale di accelerazione degli elettroni.

A Langmuir fu conferito il premio Nobel per la chimica nel 1932 per le sue scoperte e indagini nell'ambito della chimica delle superfici.

La rivista scientifica Langmuir, sulla scienza delle superfici, porta il suo nome.

Voci correlate

• Langmuir, unità di misura
• Film di Langmuir-Blodgett

Altri progetti

• Wikimedia Commons contiene immagini o altri file su Irving Langmuir

Collegamenti esterni

• (EN) Richard E. Rice, Irving Langmuir, su Enciclopedia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
• (EN) Irving Langmuir, su nobelprize.org.
• (EN) Irving Langmuir, su Mathematics Genealogy Project, North Dakota State University.
• (EN) Opere di Irving Langmuir, su Open Library, Internet Archive.

V · D · M Vincitori del Premio Nobel per la chimica
1901 - 1925	Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff (1901) • Emil Fischer (1902) • Svante Arrhenius (1903) • William Ramsay (1904) • Adolf von Baeyer (1905) • Henri Moissan (1906) • Eduard Buchner (1907) • Ernest Rutherford (1908) • Wilhelm Ostwald (1909) • Otto Wallach (1910) • Marie Curie (1911) • Victor Grignard, Paul Sabatier (1912) • Alfred Werner (1913) • Theodore Richards (1914) • Richard Willstätter (1915) • Fritz Haber (1918) • Walther Nernst (1920) • Frederick Soddy (1921) • Francis Aston (1922) • Fritz Pregl (1923) • Richard Zsigmondy (1925)
1926 - 1950	Theodor Svedberg (1926) • Heinrich Wieland (1927) • Adolf Windaus (1928) • Arthur Harden, Hans von Euler-Chelpin (1929) • Hans Fischer (1930) • Carl Bosch, Friedrich Bergius (1931) • Irving Langmuir (1932) • Harold Urey (1934) • Frédéric Joliot-Curie, Irène Joliot-Curie (1935) • Peter Debye (1936) • Walter Haworth, Paul Karrer (1937) • Richard Kuhn (1938) • Adolf Butenandt, Lavoslav Ružička (1939) • George de Hevesy (1943) • Otto Hahn (1944) • Artturi Virtanen (1945) • James B. Sumner, John Northrop, Wendell Meredith Stanley (1946) • Robert Robinson (1947) • Arne Tiselius (1948) • William Giauque (1949) • Otto Diels, Kurt Alder (1950)
1951 - 1975	Edwin McMillan, Glenn T. Seaborg (1951) • Archer Martin, Richard Synge (1952) • Hermann Staudinger (1953) • Linus Pauling (1954) • Vincent du Vigneaud (1955) • Cyril Hinshelwood, Nikolaj Semënov (1956) • Alexander Todd (1957) • Frederick Sanger (1958) • Jaroslav Heyrovský (1959) • Willard Libby (1960) • Melvin Calvin (1961) • Max Perutz, John Kendrew (1962) • Karl Ziegler, Giulio Natta (1963) • Dorothy Hodgkin (1964) • Robert Woodward (1965) • Robert Mulliken (1966) • Manfred Eigen, Ronald Norrish, George Porter (1967) • Lars Onsager (1968) • Derek Barton, Odd Hassel (1969) • Luis Federico Leloir (1970) • Gerhard Herzberg (1971) • Christian Anfinsen, Stanford Moore, William Stein (1972) • E. O. Fischer, Geoffrey Wilkinson (1973) • Paul Flory (1974) • John Cornforth, Vladimir Prelog (1975)
1976 - 2000	William Lipscomb (1976) • Il'ja Prigožin (1977) • Peter Mitchell (1978) • Herbert Brown, Georg Wittig (1979) • Paul Berg, Walter Gilbert, Frederick Sanger (1980) • Ken'ichi Fukui, Roald Hoffmann (1981) • Aaron Klug (1982) • Henry Taube (1983) • Robert Merrifield (1984) • Herbert A. Hauptman, Jerome Karle (1985) • Dudley Herschbach, Yuan T. Lee, John Polanyi (1986) • Donald J. Cram, Jean-Marie Lehn, Charles J. Pedersen (1987) • Johann Deisenhofer, Robert Huber, Hartmut Michel (1988) • Sidney Altman, Thomas Cech (1989) • Elias Corey (1990) • Richard R. Ernst (1991) • Rudolph Marcus (1992) • Kary Mullis, Michael Smith (1993) • George Olah (1994) • Paul Crutzen, Mario Molina, Frank Rowland (1995) • Robert Curl, Harold Kroto, Richard Smalley (1996) • Paul Boyer, John Ernest Walker, Jens Skou (1997) • Walter Kohn, John Pople (1998) • Ahmed Zewail (1999) • Alan Jay Heeger, Alan MacDiarmid, Hideki Shirakawa (2000)
2001 - oggi	William Knowles, Ryōji Noyori, Barry Sharpless (2001) • John B. Fenn, Kōichi Tanaka, Kurt Wüthrich (2002) • Peter Agre, Roderick MacKinnon (2003) • Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko, Irwin Rose (2004) • Robert Grubbs, Richard Schrock, Yves Chauvin (2005) • Roger D. Kornberg (2006) • Gerhard Ertl (2007) • Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie, Roger Tsien (2008) • Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas Steitz, Ada Yonath (2009) • Richard Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi, Akira Suzuki (2010) • Dan Shechtman (2011) • Brian Kobilka, Robert Lefkowitz (2012) • Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt, Arieh Warshel (2013) • Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell, William Moerner (2014) • Tomas Lindahl, Paul Modrich, Aziz Sancar (2015) • Jean-Pierre Sauvage, James Fraser Stoddart, Bernard Feringa (2016) • Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank, Richard Henderson (2017) • Frances Hamilton Arnold, George Pieczenik Smith, Gregory Paul Winter (2018) • John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham, Akira Yoshino (2019) • Emmanuelle Charpentier, Jennifer Doudna (2020) • David MacMillan, Benjamin List (2021) • Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal, Barry Sharpless (2022) • Moungi Bawendi, Aleksej Ekimov, Louis Brus

V · D · M Vincitori della medaglia Perkin

William Henry Perkin (1906) • J. B. F. Herreshoff (1908) • Arno Behr (1909) • Edward G. Acheson (1910) • Charles Martin Hall (1911) • Herman Frasch (1912) • James Gayley (1913) • John W. Hyatt (1914) • Edward Weston (1915) • Leo Baekeland (1916) • Ernst Twitchell (1917) • Auguste J. Rossi (1918) • Frederick G. Cottrell (1919) • Charles F. Chandler (1920) • Willis Rodney Whitney (1921) • William Merriam Burton (1922) • Milton C. Whitaker (1923) • Frederick Mark Becket (1924) • Hugh K. Moore (1925) • Richard B. Moore (1926) • John E. Teeple (1927) • Irving Langmuir (1928) • Eugene C. Sullivan (1929) • Herbert H. Dow (1930) • Arthur Dehon Little (1931) • Charles F. Burgess (1932) • George Oenslager (1933) • Colin G. Fink (1934) • George O. Curme, Jr. (1935) • Warren K. Lewis (1936) • Thomas Midgley, Jr. (1937) • Frank J. Tone (1938) • Walter S. Landis (1939) • Charles Stine (1940) • John V. N. Dorr (1941) • Martin Ittner (1942) • Robert E. Wilson (1943) • Gaston F. Dubois (1944) • Elmer Keiser Bolton (1945) • Francis C. Frary (1946) • Robert R. Williams (1947) • Clarence W. Balke (1948) • Carl S. Miner (1949) • Eger V. Murphree (1950) • Henry Howard (1951) • Robert M. Burns (1952) • Charles A. Thomas (1953) • Roger Adams (1954) • Roger Williams (1955) • Edgar C. Britton (1956) • Glenn T. Seaborg (1957) • William Justin Kroll (1958) • Eugène J. Houdry (1959) • Karl August Folkers (1960) • Carl F. Prutton (1961) • Eugene G. Rochow (1962) • William O. Baker (1963) • William J. Sparks (1964) • Carl S. Marvel (1965) • Manson Benedict (1966) • Vladimir Haensel (1967) • Henry B. Hass (1968) • Robert W. Cairns (1969) • Milton Harris (1970) • James F. Hyde (1971) • Robert Burns MacMullin (1972) • Theodore L. Cairns (1973) • Edwin H. Land (1974) • Carl Djerassi (1975) • Lewis H. Sarett (1976) • Paul J. Flory (1977) • Donald Othmer (1978) • James D. Idol Jr. (1979) • Herman F. Mark (1980) • Ralph Landau (1981) • Herbert C. Brown (1982) • Norman Bruce Hannay (1983) • John H. Sinfelt (1984) • Paul B. Weisz (1985) • Peter Regna (1986) • John Paul Hogan, Robert Banks (1987) • James F. Roth (1988) • Frederick J. Karol (1989) • John E. Franz (1990) • Miguel A. Ondetti (1991) • Edith M. Flanigen (1992) • Lubomyr T. Romankiw (1993) • Marinus Los (1994) • Delbert H. Meyer (1995) • Marion D. Francis (1996) • Stephanie Louise Kwolek (1997) • David R. Bryant (1998) • Albert A. Carr (1999) • Norman N. Li (2000) • Elsa Reichmanis (2001) • Paul S. Anderson (2002) • William H. Joyce (2003) • Gordon E. Moore (2004) • Robert W. Gore (2005) • James C. Stevens (2006) • Herbert Boyer (2007) • Ian Shankland (2008) • Richard Bruce Silverman (2009) • Ronald Breslow (2010)

V · D · M Vincitori del Premio Willard Gibbs (ACS)

Svante Arrhenius (1911) • Theodore William Richards (1912) • Leo Baekeland (1913) • Ira Remsen (1914) • Arthur Amos Noyes (1915) • Willis R. Whitney (1916) • Edward Morley (1917) • William Merriam Burton (1918) • William A. Noyes (1919) • Frederick Gardner Cottrell (1920) • Marie Curie (1921) • Julius Stieglitz (1923) • Gilbert Lewis (1924) • Moses Gomberg (1925) • James Colquhoun Irvine (1926) • John Jacob Abel (1927) • William Draper Harkins (1928) • Claude Silbert Hudson (1929) • Irving Langmuir (1930) • Phoebus Levene (1931) • Edward Curtis Franklin (1932) • Richard Martin Willstätter (1933) • Harold Urey (1934) • Charles August Kraus (1935) • Roger Adams (1936) • Herbert Newby McCoy (1937) • Robert R. Williams (1938) • Donald Dexter Van Slyke (1939) • Vladimir Ipatieff (1940) • Edward Adelbert Doisy (1941) • Thomas Midgley (1942) • Conrad Arnold Elvehjem (1943) • George O. Curme, Jr. (1944) • Frank C. Whitmore (1945) • Linus Pauling (1946) • Wendell Meredith Stanley (1947) • Carl F. Cori (1948) • Peter Debye (1949) • Carl S. Marvel (1950) William Francis Giauque (1951) William C. Rose (1952) • Joel Henry Hildebrand (1953) • Elmer K. Bolton (1954) • Farrington Daniels (1955) • Vincent du Vigneaud (1956) • W. Albert Noyes, Jr. (1957) • Willard Frank Libby (1958) • Hermann Irving Schlesinger (1959) • George B. Kistiakowsky (1960) • Louis Plack Hammett (1961) • Lars Onsager (1962) • Paul Doughty Bartlett (1963) • Izaak M. Kolthoff (1964) • Robert Mulliken (1965) • Glenn Theodore Seaborg (1966) • Robert Burns Woodward (1967) • Henry Eyring (1968) • Gerhard Herzberg (1969) • Frank H. Westheimer (1970) • Henry Taube (1971) • John T. Edsall (1972) • Paul Flory (1973) • Har Gobind Khorana (1974) • Herman F. Mark (1975) • Kenneth S. Pitzer (1976) • Melvin Calvin (1977) • William O. Baker (1978) • Edgar Bright Wilson (1979) • Frank Albert Cotton (1980) • Bert Lester Vallee (1981) • Gilbert Stork (1982) • John D. Roberts (1983) • Elias James Corey (1984) • Donald James Cram (1985) • Jack Halpern (1986) • Allen Bard (1987) • Rudolph Marcus (1988) • Richard Barry Bernstein (1989) • Richard Zare (1990) • Günther Wilke (1991) • Harry B. Gray (1992) • Peter B. Dervan (1993) • Frederick Hawthorne (1994) • John Meurig Thomas (1995) • Fred Basolo (1996) • Carl Djerassi (1997) • Mario Molina (1998) • Lawrence F. Dahl (1999) • Nicholas Turro (2000) • Tobin J. Marks (2001) • Ralph Hirschmann (2002) • John I. Brauman (2003) • Ronald Breslow (2004) • David A. Evans (2005) • Jacqueline K. Barton (2006) • Sylvia T. Ceyer (2007) • Carolyn R. Bertozzi (2008) • Louis Brus (2009) • Maurice Brookhart (2010) • Robert G. Bergman (2011) • Mark Ratner (2012) • Charles M. Lieber (2013) • John E. Bercaw (2014) • John F. Hartwig (2015) • Laura L. Kiessling (2016) • Judith Klinman (2017) • Cynthia Burrows (2018) • Marcetta Y. Darensbourg (2019)

V · D · M Vincitori del Faraday Lectureship Prize (RSC)

Jean Baptiste Dumas (1869) • Stanislao Cannizzaro (1872) • August Wilhelm von Hofmann (1875) • Charles-Adolphe Wurtz (1879) • Hermann von Helmholtz (1881) • Dmitri Mendeleev (1889) • Lord Rayleigh (1895) • Wilhelm Ostwald (1904) • Hermann Emil Fischer (1907) • Theodore William Richards (1911) • Svante Arrhenius (1914) • Robert Millikan (1924) • Richard Martin Willstätter (1927) • Niels Bohr (1930) • P. Debye (1933) • Ernest Rutherford (1936) • Irving Langmuir (1939) • Robert Robinson (1947) • George Charles de Hevesy (1950) • Cyril Norman Hinshelwood (1953) • Otto Hahn (1956) • Leopold Ružička (1958) • Christopher Ingold (1961) • Ronald Norrish (1965) • Charles Alfred Coulson (1968) • Gerhard Herzberg (1970) • Frederick Dainton (1974) • Manfred Eigen (1977) • George Porter (1980) • John Shipley Rowlinson (1983) • Alan Carrington (1986) • John Meurig Thomas (1989) • Yuan T. Lee (1992) • William Klemperer (1995) • Amyand David Buckingham (1998) • Richard Zare (2001) • Alexander Pines (2004) • Gerhard Ertl (2007) • John Charles Polanyi (2010) • Richard Saykally (2012) • Michel Che (2014) • Graham Fleming (2016) • Graham Hutchings (2018) • Richard Catlow (2020)

V · D · M Presidenti dell'American Chemical Society
1876–1900	John W. Draper (1876) · J. Lawrence Smith (1877) · Samuel W. Johnson (1878) · T. Sterry Hunt (1879) · Frederick A. Genth (1880) · Charles F. Chandler (1881) · John W. Mallet (1882) · James C. Booth (1883) · Albert B. Prescott (1886) · Charles Anthony Goessmann (1887) · T. Sterry Hunt (1888) · Charles F. Chandler (1889) · Henry B. Nason (1890) · George F. Barker (1891) · George C. Caldwell (1892) · Harvey W. Wiley (1893) · Edgar Fahs Smith (1895) · Charles B. Dudley (1896) · Charles E. Munroe (1898) · Edward W. Morley (1899) · William McMurtrie (1900)
1901–1925	Frank W. Clarke (1901) · Ira Remsen (1902) · John H. Long (1903) · Arthur Amos Noyes (1904) · Francis P. Venable (1905) · William F. Hillebrand (1906) · Marston T. Bogert (1907) · Willis R. Whitney (1909) · Wilder D. Bancroft (1910) · Alexander Smith (1911) · Arthur Dehon Little (1912) · Theodore W. Richards (1914) · Charles H. Herty (1915) · Julius Stieglitz (1917) · William H. Nichols (1918) · William A. Noyes (1920) · Edgar Fahs Smith (1921) · Edward C. Franklin (1923) · Leo H. Baekeland (1924) · James Flack Norris (1925)
1926–1950	George D. Rosengarten (1927) · Samuel W. Parr (1928) · Irving Langmuir (1929) · William McPherson (1930) · Moses Gomberg (1931) · L.V. Redman (1932) · Arthur B. Lamb (1933) · Charles L. Reese (1934) · Roger Adams (1935) · Edward Bartow (1936) · Edward R. Weidlein (1937) · Frank C. Whitmore (1938) · Charles A. Kraus (1939) · Samuel C. Lind (1940) · William Lloyd Evans (1941) · Harry N. Holmes (1942) · Per K. Frolich (1943) · Thomas Midgley Jr. (1944) · Carl S. Marvel (1945) · Bradley Dewey (1946) · W. Albert Noyes Jr. (1947) · Charles A. Thomas (1948) · Linus Pauling (1949) · Ernest H. Volwiler (1950)
1951–1975	N. Howell Funnan (1951) · Edgar C. Britton (1952) · Farrington Daniels (1953) · Harry L. Fisher (1954) · Joel H. Hildebrand (1955) · John C. Warner (1956) · Roger J. Williams (1957) · Clifford F. Rassweiler (1958) · John C. Bailar Jr. (1959) · Albert L. Elder (1960) · Arthur C. Cope (1961) · Karl Folkers (1962) · Henry Eyring (1963) · Maurice H. Arveson (1964) · Charles C. Price (1965) · William J. Sparks (1966) · Charles G. Overberger (1967) · Robert W. Cairns (1968) · Wallace R. Brode (1969) · Byron Riegel (1970) · Melvin Calvin (1971) · Max Tishler (1972) · Alan C. Nixon (1973) · Bernard S. Friedman (1974) · William J. Bailey (1975)
1976–2000	Glenn T. Seaborg (1976) · Henry A. Hill (1977) · Anna J. Harrison (1978) · Gardner W. Stacy (1979) · James D. D'Ianni (1980) · Albert C. Zettlemoyer (1981) · Robert W. Parry (1982) · Fred Basolo (1983) · Warren D. Niederhauser (1984) · Ellis K. Fields (1985) · George C. Pimentel (1986) · Mary L. Good (1987) · Gordon L. Nelson (1988) · Clayton F. Callis (1989) · Paul G. Gassman (1990) · S. Allen Heininger (1991) · Ernest L. Eliel (1992) · Helen M. Free (1993) · Ned D. Heindel (1994) · Brian M. Rushton (1995) · Ronald Breslow (1996) · Paul S. Anderson (1997) · Paul H.L. Walter (1998) · Edel Wasserman (1999) · Daryle H. Busch (2000)
2001–presente	Attila E. Pavlath (2001) · Eli M. Pearce (2002) · Elsa Reichmanis (2003) · Charles P. Casey (2004) · William F. Carroll Jr. (2005) · Elizabeth Ann Nalley (2006) · Catherine T. Hunt (2007) · Bruce E. Bursten (2008) · Thomas H. Lane (2009) · Joseph Francisco (2010) · Nancy B. Jackson (2011) · Bassam Z. Shakhashiri (2012) · Marinda Li Wu (2013) · Thomas J. Barton (2014) · Diane Grob Schmidt (2015) · Donna J. Nelson (2016) · Allison A. Campbell (2017) · Peter K. Dorhout (2018) · Bonnie A. Charpentier (2019) · Luis Echegoyen (2020)

Controllo di autorità	VIAF (EN) 25398504 · ISNI (EN) 0000 0001 0960 5258 · LCCN (EN) n83828424 · GND (DE) 118778706 · BNF (FR) cb115039429 (data) · J9U (EN, HE) 987007277222205171 · NDL (EN, JA) 00551404 · CONOR.SI (SL) 215281763 · WorldCat Identities (EN) lccn-n83828424