James Walker:
Sir James Walker was a Scottish physical chemist who brought German physical chemistry to English science.
Birth:
April 6, 1863 in Dundee, Scotland
Death:
May 6, 1935 in Edinburgh, Scotland
Claim to Fame:
Sir James Walker spent three years working in Germany with notable German physical chemists Ludwig Claisen, Adolf von Baeyer and Wilhelm Ostwald where he was introduced to the new theories of physical chemistry before returning to Scotland. He translated Ostwald's general chemistry text to English and wrote his own Introduction ot Physical Chemistry which became a standard textbook in Britain. He also investigated electrolysis in the synthesis of dicarboxylic acids, determined dissociation constants of many acids and bases and used freezing point depression to determine molecular weights.