George N. Hatsopoulos

George N. Hatsopoulos
George Hatsopoulos, 2011
Born (1927-01-07)January 7, 1927
Athens, Greece
Died September 20, 2018(2018-09-20) (aged 91)
Lincoln, Massachusetts, U.S.
Awards John Fritz Medal (1996)
Scientific career
Fields Mechanical engineering
Institutions Massachusetts Institute of Technology

George Nicholas Hatsopoulos (January 7, 1927 – September 20, 2018) was a Greek American mechanical engineer noted for his work in thermodynamics and for having co-founded Thermo Electron.

Early life

Hatsopoulos was born in Athens, Greece in 1927[1] and is related to the former rector of the Athens Polytechnic School, Nicolas Kitsikis. He attended Athens Polytechnic before entering MIT, where received his Bachelor and Master of Science (1950), Mechanical Engineer (1954), and Doctorate of Science (1956).[2]

Hatsopoulos-Keenan reformulation of thermodynamics

In 1965, he and Joseph Keenan published their textbook Principles of General Thermodynamics, which restates the second law of thermodynamics in terms of the existence of stable equilibrium states.[3] Their formulation of the second law of thermodynamics states that:

The Hatsopoulos-Keenan statement of the Second Law entails the Clausius, Kelvin-Planck, and Carathéodory statements of the Second Law,[4] and has provided a basis to extend the traditional definition of entropy to the non-equilibrium domain.

In 1976, Hatsopoulos also contributed to a formulation of a unified theory of mechanics and thermodynamics, arguably a precursor of the emerging field of quantum thermodynamics.[5]

Overview

While at MIT, Hatsopoulos was head of the Engineering Division of Matrad Corporation (New York).[2] Matrad Corporation and MIT financially supported his doctoral thesis, The Thermo-Electron Engine.[6] Matrad corporation was owned by the family of Peter M. Nomikos, a Harvard Business School graduate. In 1956, Nomikos co-founded with Hatsopoulos the Thermo Electron Corporation.[7] Thermo Electron became a major provider of analytical instruments and services for a variety of domains under the development of George Hatsopoulos, John Hatsopoulos, and Arvin Smith.[8] In 1965, George Hatsopoulos was president of the Thermo Electron Engineering Corporation and Senior Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at M.I.T..

In 1996, Hatsopoulos won the John Fritz Medal, which is the highest American award in the engineering profession and presented each year for scientific or industrial achievement in any field of pure or applied science. In 1997 he was awarded the 3rd Annual Heinz Award in Technology, the Economy and Employment.[9] Mr. Hatsopoulos is also a recipient of The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence. In 2011, along with Arvin Smith and John Hatsopoulos, he was awarded the 2011 Pittcon Heritage Award from the Chemical Heritage Foundation.[10] He died on September 20, 2018 at the age of 91.[11]

See also

References

  1. ↑
  2. 1 2 MIT. (1956) Appointments To Administrative Positions And Four Faculty Changes Announced. The Tech. LXXVI No. 15, 3 http://tech.mit.edu/V76/PDF/N15.pdf
  3. ↑ Hatsopoulos, George, N.; Keenan, Joseph, H. (1965). Principles of General Thermodynamics. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. CCN 65-12709.
  4. ↑ Gyftopoulos, Elias, P.; Beretta, Gian Paolo (2005). Thermodynamics. Foundations and Applications. Dover Pu., Inc. ISBN 0-486-43932-1.
  5. ↑ See, e.g., http://www.quantumthermodynamics.org
  6. ↑ Hatsopoulos, George Nicholas. (1956). The Thermo-Electron Engine. Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/12098
  7. ↑ It Don't Mean a Thing If You Ain't Got that Green: HBS and the Birth of Venture Capital. HBS Bulletin Online, December 1996. http://www.alumni.hbs.edu/bulletin/1996/december/start.html
  8. ↑ "George and John Hatsopoulos, and Arvin Smith". Chemical Heritage Foundation. Archived from the original on July 12, 2016. Retrieved 26 June 2013.
  9. ↑ The Heinz Awards, George Hatsopoulos profile
  10. ↑ "Pittcon Heritage Award". Science History Institute. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  11. ↑ George Hatsopoulos Obituary
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