Author(s)

M. Costa, M. Fontani, N. Marchettini, E. Tiezzi

Abstract

Walther Hermann Nernst, the great German scientist, Nobel laureate in Chemistry, father of the third principle of thermodynamics, had a Florentine disciple, Giorgio Piccardi, later professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Florence.

Piccardi studied fluctuating phenomena before Ilya Prigogine and his best scholar and scientific successor was Enzo Ferroni who, when Piccardi retired, held the chair of Physical Chemistry at the University of Florence. Ferroni was also director of the Department of Chemistry and full professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cagliari (Sardinia). One of the authors of this article (E.T.) had the honor to be a student of Giorgio Piccardi, Enzo Ferroni and Ilya Prigogine.

Keywords