One of Germany's most important, productive and often controversial scientists, Walther H. Nernst (1864-1941) was at once the first modern physical chemist, an able scientific organizer and a savvy entrepreneur. The winner of the 1920 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, Nernst was a key figure in the transition to modern physical science with his contributions to the study of solutions, of chemical equilibria, and of the behavior of matter at the extremes...