Richard C. Tolman

Richard Chace Tolman (March 4 1881–September 5 1948) was an American mathematical physicist and physical chemist who was an authority on statistical mechanics and made important contributions to the early development of theoretical cosmology. He was a professor of physical chemistry and mathematical physics at Caltech.

Born in West Newton, Massachusetts, brother of behavioral psychologist Edward Chace Tolman, Richard C. Tolman studied chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, receiving his bachelor's degree in 1903 and Ph.D. in 1910.

In 1912, two years out of school, Tolman more or less single-handedly coined the concept of relativistic mass, in stating: "“the expression m₀(1 − v²/c²)^−1/2 is best suited for THE mass of a moving body”". [R. Tolman, Philosophical Magazine 23, 375 (1912).]

Tolman joined the California Institute of Technology in 1922, where he became professor of physical chemistry and mathematical physics, and later dean of the graduate school. An early student there was American theoretical chemist Linus Pauling, to whom he taught the pre-wave-mechanics quantum theory.

At some point Tolman was a member of the Technical Alliance forerunner of Technocracy Incorporated and participated in the Energy Survey of North America.

An expert on statistical mechanics, Tolman wrote a textbook on the subject in 1927 against the background of the old quantum theory. This was followed in 1938 by a completely new work, which covered in detail the application of statistical mechanics to both classical and quantum systems. It became the standard work on the subject for many years, and is still of interest today. Tolman also became increasingly interested in the application of thermodynamics to relativistic systems, and cosmology. Work in that field included investigation of the oscillatory universe hypothesis (resulting in its temporary demise); and showing in 1934 that black body radiation in an expanding universe cools but remains thermal - a vital result for the properties of the cosmic microwave background.

During World War II he served as scientific advisor to General Leslie Groves on the Manhattan Project, and at the time of his death was chief advisor to Bernard Baruch, the U.S. representative to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission.

Each year the Tolman Medal, named for Richard Tolman, is awarded by the southern California section of the American Chemical Society "in recognition of outstanding contributions to chemistry".

References

*
* Reissued (1979) New York: Dover ISBN 0-486-63896-0.
* Reissued (1987) New York: Dover ISBN 0-486-65383-8.

See also

* List of notable textbooks in statistical mechanics
* Tolman length
* Tolman surface brightness test
* Lemaitre-Tolman metric

External links

* [http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=tf4w1003fs&chunk.id=bioghist-1.7.3 Short biography] from the Online Archive of California
* [http://www.scalacs.org/tolman.html#tolmanrc Short biography] from the "Tolman Award" page of the Southern California Section of the American Chemical Society.