Rudolf Clausius

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Rudolf Julius Emanuel Clausius (January 2, 1822 – August 24, 1888), was a German physicist and mathematician.

Clausius was one of the founders of thermodynamics. By his restatement of Sadi Carnot's principle known as the Carnot cycle, he put the theory of heat on a truer and sounder basis. His most important paper, on the mechanical theory of heat, published in 1850, first stated the basic ideas of the second law of thermodynamics. In 1865 he introduced the concept of entropy.

Clausius graduated from the University of Berlin in 1844, and got his doctorate from the University of Halle in 1848. He then taught in Berlin in 1850, Zürich in 1855, Würzburg in 1867, and Bonn in 1869.

In 1857 Clausius contributed to the field of kinetic theory after refining August Krönig's very simple gas-kinetic model to include translational, rotational and vibrational molecular motions. In this same work he introduced the concept of 'Mean free path' of a particle.

In 1870 Clausius organized an ambulance corps in the Franco-Prussian War. He was wounded in battle, leaving him with a lasting disability. He was awarded the Iron Cross for his services.

His wife, Adelheid Rimpham, died in childbirth in 1875, leaving him to raise their six children. He continued to teach, but had less time for research thereafter.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1868 and received its Copley Medal in 1879. He also received the Huygens Medal in 1870, the Poncelet Prize in 1883, and he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Würzburg in 1882.

Clausius crater on the Moon was named in his honor.

"The total energy of the universe is constant; the total entropy is continually increasing." - Rudolf Clausius

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