Biography:George N. Hatsopoulos

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George N. Hatsopoulos
Hatsopoulos in 2011
Born(1927-01-07)January 7, 1927
Athens, Greece
DiedSeptember 20, 2018(2018-09-20) (aged 91)
Lincoln, Massachusetts, U.S.
AwardsJohn Fritz Medal (1996)
Scientific career
FieldsMechanical engineering
InstitutionsMassachusetts 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 he 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. Hatsopoulus and Keenan maintained that it is unlikely to identify a satisfactory definition of heat without a prior statement of the second law.[5][6][7]

Hatsopoulos helped pioneer academic work in quantum thermodynamics. In the Spring term of 1971 at MIT, he and Elias Gyftopoulos offered what is regarded as the first university course titled "Quantum Thermodynamics". It was a graduate-level class designated 2.47J.[8] In 1976, he also contributed to the formulation of a unified theory of mechanics and thermodynamics, arguably a precursor of the emerging interconnected fields of nonequilibrium thermodynamics and quantum thermodynamics (see e.g. Refs.[9][10][11][12])

Academic and industry leader

While at MIT, Hatsopoulos was head of the engineering division of Matrad Corporation of New York.[2] Matrad Corporation and MIT also provided financial support for his doctoral thesis The Thermo-Electron Engine.[13] Matrad Corporation was owned by the family of Peter M. Nomikos, a Harvard Business School graduate. In 1956, Nomikos and Hatsopoulos co-founded the Thermo Electron Corporation. Several years later, George asked his brother (John Hatsopoulos) to join the company as financial controller.[14] Under George Hatsopoulos, Thermo Electron became a major provider of analytical instruments and services for a variety of domains. John Hatsopoulos, and Arvin Smith.[15] In 1965, George Hatsopoulos was president of the Thermo Electron Engineering Corporation and Senior Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at M.I.T.

Recognition

In 1961, Hatsopoulos received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[16] 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.[17]

In 2011, along with Arvin Smith and John Hatsopoulos, he was awarded the 2011 Pittcon Heritage Award from the Chemical Heritage Foundation.[18]


He died on September 20, 2018, at the age of 91.[19] His net worth was reported as US$481 million in 2017.[20]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Who, Marquis Who's (1999). Who's who in Finance and Industry. Marquis Who's Who.. ISBN 978-0-8379-0334-7. https://books.google.com/books?id=zecLAQAAMAAJ&q=%22HATSOPOULOS,+GEORGE+NICHOLAS,+*%22+1927. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 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. https://archive.org/details/principlesofgene00hats. 
  4. ↑ Gyftopoulos, Elias, P.; Beretta, Gian Paolo (2005). Thermodynamics. Foundations and Applications. Dover Pu., Inc.. ISBN 0-486-43932-1. 
  5. ↑ Zanchini, E.; Beretta, G. P. (2014). "Recent Progress in the Definition of Thermodynamic Entropy". Entropy 16 (3): 1547–1570. doi:10.3390/e16031547. Bibcode: 2014Entrp..16.1547Z. 
  6. ↑ Beretta, G. P. (2020). "The fourth law of thermodynamics: steepest entropy ascent". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A 378 (2170). doi:10.1098/rsta.2019.0168. PMID 32223406. Bibcode: 2020RSPTA.37890168B. 
  7. ↑ "Lecture 2: Second Law and Entropy; Adiabatic Availability; Maximum Entropy Principle". MIT. Spring 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKi3EuS5foY. 
  8. ↑ MIT Bulletin 1970-71.
  9. ↑ Hatsopoulos, G. N.; Gyftopoulos, E. P. (1976). "A unified quantum theory of mechanics and thermodynamics. Part IIa. Available energy". Foundations of Physics 6 (2): 127–141. doi:10.1007/bf00708955. Bibcode: 1976FoPh....6..127H. 
  10. ↑ Maddox, John (1985). "Uniting Mechanics and Statistics". Nature 316 (6023): 11. doi:10.1038/316011a0. Bibcode: 1985Natur.316...11M. https://gianpaolo-beretta.unibs.it/Nature040785.pdf. Retrieved 2025-11-04. 
  11. ↑ https://www.quantumthermodynamics.org. Retrieved 2010-05-29
  12. ↑ Hatsopoulos, G. N.; Beretta, G. P. (2008). "Where is the entropy challenge?". AIP Conference Proceedings. 1033. pp. 34–54. doi:10.1063/1.2979057. https://gianpaolo-beretta.unibs.it/Beretta-papers-online/ic46-HatsopoulosBeretta-AIPCP-1033-34-2008.pdf. 
  13. ↑ Hatsopoulos, George Nicholas. (1956). The Thermo-Electron Engine. Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/12098
  14. ↑ 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
  15. ↑ "George and John Hatsopoulos, and Arvin Smith". Chemical Heritage Foundation. http://www.chemheritage.org/visit/events/awards/affiliate-partnership-awards/pittcon-hof-hatsopouloses-smith.aspx. 
  16. ↑ "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement". American Academy of Achievement. https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#business. 
  17. ↑ The Heinz Awards, George Hatsopoulos profile
  18. ↑ "Pittcon Heritage Award". 31 May 2016. https://www.sciencehistory.org/pittcon-heritage-award. 
  19. ↑ George Hatsopoulos Obituary
  20. ↑ "National Herald - 50 wealthiest Greek-Americans for 2017". https://www.ellines.com/en/good-news/33197-50-wealthiest-greek-americans/. 



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