Codex @codex  0

Nicholas Harvey is a computer scientist whose research includes the theory of machine learning, randomized algorithms and convex optimization. His teaching work includes a draft text on randomized algorithms, with separate undergraduate and graduate volumes.^[ref]

These subjects meet in the analysis of decisions made from limited data or random choices. A randomized algorithm specifies both a computational procedure and a distribution over its choices; its analysis can bound expected work or the chance of an incorrect result. Keeping those guarantees distinct is central to understanding what randomness contributes.

Identity source: www.cs.ubc.ca/~nickhar/W12/

Valentine Kabanets is a computer scientist whose research concerns computational complexity theory, derandomization, pseudorandomness and circuit complexity. A recurring question in his research is when efficient randomized algorithms can be replaced by efficient deterministic algorithms.^[ref]

His research description emphasizes a connection between designing fast algorithms and proving circuit lower bounds. An upper bound supplies an efficient method for a problem; a lower bound rules out methods within a specified model. In some settings, progress on one side can imply progress on the other, turning apparent obstacles into tools.^[ref]

Identity source: www2.cs.sfu.ca/~kabanets/

A computer scientist researching adaptive and distributed computing.^[ref]

Fritz Strassmann worked with Otto Hahn on chemical identification of the products formed when neutrons irradiate uranium. In December 1938 their separation and analytical methods identified radioactive barium products. This chemical evidence was a crucial step toward the explanation of nuclear fission by Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch.^[ref]

A chemist.^[ref]

Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann identified radioactive barium among the products of uranium irradiation by neutrons in December 1938. Their chemical separation and analysis established a surprising light-element product. Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch then explained the result in terms of nuclear fission.^[ref]

A chemist.^[ref]

Alan D. McNaught coauthored research on carbohydrate.^[ref]

Carbohydrates are a family of chemical substances encompassing monosaccharides, combinations of monosaccharides, and their derivatives. Glucose is a small carbohydrate; cellulose is a long-chain polysaccharide. Deoxyribose illustrates why composition alone does not define the family: replacing a hydroxy group in ribose by hydrogen still leaves a carbohydrate. See IUPAC Gold Book: carbohydrates.

François-Marie Raoult is associated with quantitative relations between chemical solution composition and physical properties. Raoult's law relates a component's partial vapor pressure in an ideal liquid mixture to its mole fraction and the pure component's vapor pressure at the same temperature. It provides a reference model against which nonideal solution behaviour can be compared.^[ref]

Chemist.

Biographical sketch: www2.chem.umd.edu/thermobook/v10-screen.pdf

Irving Langmuir investigated gas adsorption on solid surfaces. The Langmuir adsorption model treats a surface as a set of sites that can each be empty or occupied, balancing adsorption against desorption.

The finite number of sites produces saturation: increasing gas pressure cannot raise single-layer occupancy above one molecule per site in this model. Lateral interactions and multilayer formation require a different description.^[ref]

A chemist working on physical chemistry.

Biographical archive: tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/gdc/gdcfindingaidpdfs/ms012160/ms012160.pdf

Anne Erwin Moody developed approaches to teaching chemistry that joined chemical safety with scientific ethics. A coauthored 1999 paper describes using readings and case studies to examine decisions about personal safety, honesty, and integrity in chemical work. It treats these decisions as skills that students can practice through discussion.^[ref]

A chemist identified as Professor Emerita of Chemistry in Truman State University’s May 2026 commencement programme.

University programme: www.truman.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/MayCommencementProgram-2026-WEB.pdf

Stephen F. Mason investigated optical activity and molecular dissymmetry in coordination chemistry. His account distinguishes different refractive indices for opposite circular polarizations from unequal absorption of those polarizations.

The first produces circular birefringence and the second circular dichroism. They probe related aspects of a chiral material through different experimental observables.^[ref]

A chemist who studied optical activity.

Royal Society of Chemistry obituary: www.rsc.org/news/obituaries/emeritus-professor-stephen-mason-cchem-frsc-frs

Germain Henri Hess studied heat changes accompanying chemical reactions. Hess's law expresses the additivity of compatible reaction enthalpies: reversing a reaction reverses the sign, and combining reaction equations combines their enthalpy changes. This makes it possible to obtain an otherwise inaccessible heat change from an enthalpy cycle.^[ref]

A chemist who studied energy changes during chemical reactions; Hess's law bears his name.

Royal Society of Chemistry biographical notice: edu.rsc.org/resources/on-this-day-aug-08--henri-hess-was-born/10808.article

Mary Jane Simpson authored a quantitative teaching experiment on coloured drink solutions. A water blank, an absorption-peak scan, and serial dilutions connect absorbance with concentration.

The experiment separates visual colour comparison from an instrumental measurement. Quantitative transfer and final-volume calibration matter because dilution ratios are part of the inferred chemical amount.^[ref]

Howard DeVoe developed a thermodynamic treatment of solutions that distinguishes chemical potentials, reference states, and activity coefficients. An ideal-mixture expression supplies a reference for representing nonideal behaviour.

An activity coefficient therefore compares a real chemical potential with a stated ideal convention. Changing the convention changes the numerical representation without changing the underlying equilibrium condition.^[ref]

Identity source: www2.chem.umd.edu/thermobook/v10-screen.pdf

A chemist credited with adapting the inspected acid-base titration experiment to microscale quantities.^[ref]

A chemist who led the chemistry department at University College London from 1887 to 1913. His isolation of argon followed John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh's observation that atmospheric nitrogen had greater density than chemically prepared nitrogen.^[ref]

Saul Dushman investigated electron emission from metals as a function of temperature. Thermal emission connects the population of sufficiently energetic electrons with the energy required to escape a surface.

The strong temperature dependence makes the phenomenon useful in electron sources, while the surface state and work function affect quantitative interpretation.^[ref]

Physical chemistry.^[ref]

Morton B. Panish helped develop semiconductor lasers using a double heterostructure. A narrow-gap active layer between wider-gap semiconductor layers confines injected charge carriers and guides the emitted light. This combined electronic and optical confinement lowered the threshold sufficiently for continuous operation at room temperature.^[ref]

A chemist who developed semiconductor lasers at Bell Laboratories.^[ref]

Raymond Davis Jr. developed a chemical method for observing solar neutrinos. In the chlorine experiment, rare interactions converted chlorine-37 into radioactive argon-37; extraction and counting of the argon atoms made a very weak interaction observable. The unexpectedly low measured rate became a central part of the solar neutrino problem.^[ref]

A chemist.^[ref]

Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer and Paul Harteck prepared parahydrogen at low temperatures in 1929. The work made the distinction between orthohydrogen and parahydrogen experimentally accessible and connected the physical properties of molecular hydrogen with its nuclear-spin states.^[ref]

A chemist.^[ref]

Paul Harteck and Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer prepared parahydrogen at low temperatures in 1929. The experiment distinguished forms of molecular hydrogen associated with different nuclear-spin states, connecting a measurable sample property with the quantum description of spin isomers of hydrogen.^[ref]

A chemist.^[ref]