George N. Hatsopoulos

Early life

Hatsopoulos was born in Athens, Greece in 1927 and is related to the former rector of the Athens Polytechnic School, Nicolas Kitsikis. He attended Athens Polytechnic before entering MIT, where he received his Bachelor and Master of Science (1950), Mechanical Engineer (1954), and Doctorate of Science (1956).

Hatsopoulos-Keenan reformulation of thermodynamics

In 1965, he and Joseph Keenan published their textbook Principles of General Thermodynamics, which restates the second law of thermodynamics in terms of the existence of stable equilibrium states. Their formulation of the second law of thermodynamics states that:

The Hatsopoulos-Keenan statement of the Second Law entails the Clausius, Kelvin-Planck, and Carathéodory statements of the Second Law, and has provided a basis to extend the traditional definition of entropy to the non-equilibrium domain. Hatsopoulus and Keenan maintained that it is unlikely to identify a satisfactory definition of heat without a prior statement of the second law.

Hatsopoulos helped pioneer academic work in quantum thermodynamics. In the Spring term of 1971 at MIT, he and Elias Gyftopoulos offered what is regarded as the first university course titled "Quantum Thermodynamics". It was a graduate-level class designated 2.47J. In 1976, he also contributed to the formulation of a unified theory of mechanics and thermodynamics, arguably a precursor of the emerging interconnected fields of nonequilibrium thermodynamics and quantum thermodynamics (see e.g. Refs.{{cite journal |access-date=2025-11-04 |chapter-url=https://gianpaolo-beretta.unibs.it/Beretta-papers-online/ic46-HatsopoulosBeretta-AIPCP-1033-34-2008.pdf

Academic and industry leader

While at MIT, Hatsopoulos was head of the engineering division of Matrad Corporation of New York. Matrad Corporation and MIT also provided financial support for his doctoral thesis The Thermo-Electron Engine. Matrad Corporation was owned by the family of Peter M. Nomikos, a Harvard Business School graduate. In 1956, Nomikos and Hatsopoulos co-founded the Thermo Electron Corporation. Several years later, George asked his brother (John Hatsopoulos) to join the company as financial controller. Under George Hatsopoulos, Thermo Electron became a major provider of analytical instruments and services for a variety of domains. John Hatsopoulos, and Arvin Smith. In 1965, George Hatsopoulos was president of the Thermo Electron Engineering Corporation and Senior Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at M.I.T.

Recognition

In 1961, Hatsopoulos received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. In 1996, Hatsopoulos won the John Fritz Medal, which is the highest American award in the engineering profession and presented each year for scientific or industrial achievement in any field of pure or applied science. In 1997, he was awarded the 3rd Annual Heinz Award in Technology, the Economy and Employment.

In 2011, along with Arvin Smith and John Hatsopoulos, he was awarded the 2011 Pittcon Heritage Award from the Chemical Heritage Foundation.

Hatsopoulos is also a recipient of The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence.

He died on September 20, 2018, at the age of 91. His net worth was reported as US$481 million in 2017.

References

References

1. (1999). "Who's who in Finance and Industry". Marquis Who's Who..
2. MIT. (1956) Appointments To Administrative Positions And Four Faculty Changes Announced. ''The Tech.'' '''LXXVI''' No. 15, 3 http://tech.mit.edu/V76/PDF/N15.pdf {{Webarchive. link. (2012-05-11)
3. Hatsopoulos, George, N.. (1965). "Principles of General Thermodynamics". John Wiley & Sons, Inc..
4. Gyftopoulos, Elias, P.. (2005). "Thermodynamics. Foundations and Applications". Dover Pu., Inc..
5. (2014). "Recent Progress in the Definition of Thermodynamic Entropy". Entropy.
6. Beretta, G. P.. (2020). "The fourth law of thermodynamics: steepest entropy ascent". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A.
7. (Spring 2024). "Lecture 2: Second Law and Entropy; Adiabatic Availability; Maximum Entropy Principle". MIT.
8. MIT Bulletin 1970-71.
9. (1976). "A unified quantum theory of mechanics and thermodynamics. Part IIa. Available energy". Foundations of Physics.
10. https://www.quantumthermodynamics.org. Retrieved 2010-05-29
11. Hatsopoulos, George Nicholas. (1956). ''The Thermo-Electron Engine.'' Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/12098
12. It Don't Mean a Thing If You Ain't Got that Green: HBS and the Birth of Venture Capital. HBS Bulletin Online, December 1996. http://www.alumni.hbs.edu/bulletin/1996/december/start.html
13. "George and John Hatsopoulos, and Arvin Smith". [[Chemical Heritage Foundation]].
14. "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement". [[American Academy of Achievement]].
15. [http://www.heinzawards.net/recipients/george-hatsopoulos The Heinz Awards, George Hatsopoulos profile]
16. (31 May 2016). "Pittcon Heritage Award".
17. [http://concordfuneral.tributes.com/obituary/show/George-Nicholas-Hatsopoulos-106441457 George Hatsopoulos Obituary]
18. "National Herald - 50 wealthiest Greek-Americans for 2017".