NERNST, WALTER (1864– ), German physical chem ist, was born on June 25, 1864, at Briesen, West Prussia. He studied at the universities of Zilrich, Berlin, Graz and Wiirzburg and became an assistant at the University of Leipzig, subsequently going in this capacity to Gottingen, where he later became a professor. In 1905 he was appointed ordinary professor of physics in the University of Berlin, and later became director of the Physikal. Techn. Reichsanstalt, Charlottenburg, a position he held until 1924. In 1925 he became director of the Physical Institute in the University of Berlin. On the technical side Nernst is known for the invention of an electric glow lamp which was more efficient although more complicated, than the old carbon lamps. In com parison with the modern metal filament lamps, however, the Nernst lamp has no general value, but in scientific work it is still used to a small extent as a concentrated source of light. In physical chemistry Nernst is responsible for a great deal of the fundamental work on reversible galvanic cells ; he has also made considerable contributions to the theory of solutions, more especially in connec tion with diffusion, hydration and dissociation of electrolytes.
With H. von Wartenberg he devised a method for measuring vapour densities at very high temperatures ; they investigated the dissociation of various elements and compounds. Nernst is noted for the statement of the so-called third law of thermodynamics and for initiating important measurements of specific heats at low temperatures. In 1920 he received the Nobel Prize for chemistry.
He has edited the Jahrbuch der Elektrochemie, the Zeitschrift fur angewandte Chemie, and the Zeitschrift fiir Elektrochemie. His Experi mental and Theoretical Applications of Thermodynamics to Chemistry has appeared in a number of German and English editions. His new contribution to thermodynamics is described in Die theoretischen and experimentellen Grundlagen des neuen Warmesatzes (1918) ; an English translation has been published.