William Giauque (1895 – 1982)William Giauque – the enigma among the Canadian Nobel Prize winners – was born in Niagara Falls, Ontario, to American parents who were living in Canada at the time.
He attended primary school in Michigan, but after his father’s death in 1908, the family returned to Niagara Falls, Ontario.
Giauque’s family found themselves in a precarious financial situation after his father’s death and they were extremely fortunate in having friendship of Dr. John Woods Beckman and wife Gertrude through this troubled time.
While he planned to be electrical engineer, after finished high school he took a job across the river at the Hooker Electro Chemical Company in Niagara Falls, New York, where he was fortunate enough to be employed in the laboratory for two years.
In the course of his work, which he found fascinating, he decided to change direction and become a chemical engineer.
Giauque enrolled at the College of Chemistry at the University of California, where he received his B.Sc degree in 1920. After two years as a teaching fellow at the University of California, he received his PhD in 1922.
He progressed through the system to become a full professor of chemistry in 1934, by which time, he was fully into the research that earned him his Nobel Price.
William Giauque was awarded the Nobel Prize or Chemistry in 1949 “for his contribution to the field of chemical thermodynamics, particularly concerning the behavior of substances at extremely low temperatures.”
William Giauque (1895 – 1982)
