Editing Gilbert N. Lewis (section)

===Early life===
Lewis was born in 1875 and raised in [[Weymouth, Massachusetts]], where there exists a street named for him, G.N. Lewis Way, off Summer Street.  Additionally, the wing of the new Weymouth High School Chemistry department has been named in his honor. Lewis received his primary education at home from his parents, Frank Wesley Lewis, a lawyer of independent character, and Mary Burr White Lewis. He read at age three and was intellectually precocious. In 1884 his family moved to [[Lincoln, Nebraska]], and in 1889 he received his first formal education at the university preparatory school.

In 1893, after two years at the [[University of Nebraska]], Lewis transferred to [[Harvard University]], where he obtained his [[B.S.]] in 1896. After a year of teaching at [[Phillips Academy]] in [[Andover, Massachusetts|Andover]], Lewis returned to Harvard to study with the physical chemist [[Theodore William Richards|T. W. Richards]] and obtained his Ph.D. in 1899 with a dissertation on [[electrochemical potential]]s.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hildebrand |first1=Joel H. |title=Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences |date=1958 |publisher=National Academy of Sciences |location=Washington, D.C., U.S.A. |volume= 31 |pages=209–235 |chapter=Gilbert Newton Lewis |chapter-url=http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/lewis-gilbert-n.pdf}}; see p. 210. Lewis's Ph.D. thesis was titled "Some electrochemical and thermochemical relations of zinc and cadmium amalgams". He published the results jointly with his supervisor T.W. Richards.</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Richards |first1=Theodore William |last2=Lewis |first2=Gilbert Newton |title=Some electrochemical and thermochemical relations of zinc and cadmium amalgams |journal=Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences |date=1898 |volume=34 |issue=4 |pages=87–99 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101050586039;view=1up;seq=97|doi=10.2307/20020864 |jstor=20020864 }}</ref> After a year of teaching at Harvard, Lewis took a traveling fellowship to Germany, the center of [[physical chemistry]], and studied with [[Walther Nernst]] at [[Göttingen]] and with [[Wilhelm Ostwald]] at [[Leipzig]].<ref>{{cite journal
|last=Edsall
|first=J. T.
|date=November 1974
|title=Some notes and queries on the development of bioenergetics. Notes on some "founding fathers" of physical chemistry: J. Willard Gibbs, Wilhelm Ostwald, Walther Nernst, Gilbert Newton Lewis
|journal=[[Mol. Cell. Biochem.]]
|volume=5 |issue=1–2 |pages=103–12
|doi=10.1007/BF01874179
|pmid = 4610355
|s2cid=5682498
}}
</ref> While working in Nernst's lab, Lewis apparently developed a lifelong enmity with Nernst. In the following years, Lewis started to criticize and denounce his former teacher on many occasions, calling Nernst's work on his heat theorem "''a regrettable episode in the history of chemistry''".<ref>[http://listverse.com/2015/04/07/10-fierce-but-productive-rivalries-between-dueling-scientists/ ''10 Fierce (But Productive) Rivalries Between Dueling Scientists''] Radu Alexander. Website of Listverse Ltd. April 7th 2015. Retrieved 2016-03-24.</ref> A [[Sweden|Swedish]] friend of Nernst's, [[:sv:Wilhelm Palmær (kemist)|Wilhelm Palmær]], was a member of the Nobel Chemistry Committee. There is evidence that he used the Nobel nominating and reporting procedures to block a [[Nobel Prize]] for Lewis in [[thermodynamics]] by nominating Lewis for the prize three times, and then using his position as a committee member to write negative reports.<ref>Coffey (2008): 195-207.</ref>