Giauque, William Francis

Giauque, William Francis (1895-1982), American chemist and Nobel laureate, best known for discovering a method for producing temperatures approaching absolute zero by adiabatic demagnetization. He was a codiscoverer (1929) with Herrick L. Johnston of the oxygen isotopes of mass 17 and 18. Through his research Giauque found an experimental basis for quantum statistics and the third law of thermodynamics. For his work in chemical thermodynamics he received the 1949 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.