Editing Lars Onsager (section)

=== Brown University===
On leaving JHU, he accepted a position (involving the teaching of [[statistical mechanics]] to graduate students in chemistry) at [[Brown University]] in [[Providence, Rhode Island]], where it became clear that he was no better at teaching advanced students than freshmen, but he made significant contributions to statistical mechanics and [[thermodynamics]]. His graduate student [[Raymond Fuoss]] worked under him and eventually joined him on the Yale chemistry faculty. His statistical mechanics course was nicknamed "Sadistical Mechanics" by the students.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last1=Christopher Longuet-Higgins |first1=H. |last2=Fisher |first2=Michael E. |date=1995-01-01 |title=Lars Onsager: November 27, 1903–October 5, 1976 |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02183371 |journal=Journal of Statistical Physics |language=en |volume=78 |issue=1 |pages=605–640 |doi=10.1007/BF02183371 |bibcode=1995JSP....78..605C |issn=1572-9613}}</ref>

His research at Brown was concerned mainly with the effects on [[diffusion]] of [[temperature gradient]]s, and produced the [[Onsager reciprocal relations]], a set of equations published in 1929 and, in an expanded form, in 1931, in [[statistical mechanics]] whose importance went unrecognized for many years. However, their value became apparent during the decades following [[World War II]], and by 1968 they were considered important enough to gain Onsager that year's [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]].

In 1933, when the [[Great Depression]] limited Brown's ability to support a faculty member who was only useful as a researcher and not a teacher, he was let go by Brown. He traveled to [[Austria]] to visit [[electrochemistry|electrochemist]] [[Hans Falkenhagen]]. He met Falkenhagen's sister-in-law, Margrethe Arledter. They were married on September 7, 1933, and had three sons and a daughter.<ref>{{cite web |date=1991-12-06 |title=Lars Onsager – Norsk biografisk leksikon |url=https://nbl.snl.no/Lars_Onsager |access-date=2016-03-07 |website=Nbl.snl.no}}</ref>