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Albert Potter Wills
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<p>Albert Potter Wills (1873–1937) was an American physicist who researched magnetic materials and was the PhD advisor of the <a href="/facts/Nobel_Prize/3z1Y3oFL">Nobel Prize</a> winner <a href="/facts/Isidor_Isaac_Rabi/hmEXNWEJ">Isidor Isaac Rabi</a>. </p><p>During his career he investigated magnetic susceptibilities, magnetic shielding, <a href="/facts/Magnetostriction/hkma4mTU">magnetostriction</a>, conduction of electricity through mercury vapor, and <a href="/facts/Hydrodynamics/y7uzSCfg">hydrodynamics</a>. He also wrote a textbook on <a href="/facts/Vector_analysis/mXKIJLJE">vector analysis</a>. </p><p>Wills received his PhD from <a href="/facts/Clark_University/Dc50IPXD">Clark University</a> in 1897 under <a href="/facts/Arthur_Gordon_Webster/4LlAA8lP">Arthur Gordon Webster</a> with a thesis entitled: <i>On the susceptibility of diamagnetic and weakly magnetic substances.</i> </p><p>During 1898–1899 Wills worked at the <a href="/facts/University_of_G%25C3%25B6ttingen/UTUodvX1">University of Göttingen</a> and the <a href="/facts/University_of_Berlin/QE2lhhkd">University of Berlin</a>. During 1899–1902 he was at <a href="/facts/Bryn_Mawr_College/KwWWMNP7">Bryn Mawr College</a> and 1902–1903 at the Cooper Hewitt Laboratory. His final appointment, 1903–1937, was at <a href="/facts/Columbia_University/Hlf1gw53">Columbia University</a>. </p><p>In 1909 at Columbia University, <a href="/facts/Max_Planck/KKk0698y">Max Planck</a> gave eight lectures in German. Wills translated the lectures into English, and in 1915 Columbia University Press published his translation. </p> <h3>Sources</h3> <ul><li>J. C. Poggendorff, <i>Biographisch-literarisches Handwörterbuch für Mathematik, Astronomie, Physik, Chemie und verwandte Wissenschaftsgebiete;</i> P. Weinmeister, P., Ed.; Verlag-Chemie: Berlin, 1904; Bd. IV, p. 1644.</li> <li><i>American Men of Science</i>, 2nd ed.; Cattell, J.M., Eds.; Science Press: Lancaster, PA, 1910; pp. 515.</li> <li>"Prof. Albert Wills is dead in Florida," <i>The New York Times</i>, Apr 18, 1937, p. 48 (or II 8), col. 4.</li> <li>National Cyclopaedia of American Biography being the history of the United States. New York: James T White & Co, 1939; Vol 27, pp. 430–431.</li> <li>A.P. Wills, "On the susceptibility of diamagnetic and weakly magnetic substances," PhD Thesis, Clark University, Worcester, MA, 1897. (Also appeared in <i>Phil. Mag.</i> 1898, 45, pp.432–447).</li> <li>I.I. Rabi, <i>Phys. Rev.</i> 1927, 29(1), pp. 174–185</li></ul>