Laboring in the vineyard of physical chemistry.
This is an account mostly of what I have seen and worked on in physical chemistry, from my time in graduate school six decades ago to the present. It is a personal story about kinetics, thermodynamics, and statistical mechanics--in which subjects I continue to be educated, thanks to patient instruction by my students and associates. When I had the invitation from Steve Leone to write this article I said "yes" because (a) "yes" is my default setting; (b) it was a great honor to have been invited to do it; and (c) I was too busy at the time to think about what the consequences of saying "yes" would be. I must now do my best to fulfill my promise.
Widom
Benjamin
B
Department of Chemistry, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853-1301, USA. bw24@cornell.edu