Walther Hermann Nernst studies in Zurich, Berlin, and Graz. He gains his doctorate in Würzburg in 1887. After working as assistant to the physical chemist Wilhelm Ostwald in Leipzig, he is appointed professor of physical chemistry in Göttingen in 1891. In 1905 he moves to Berlin University, and is full professor of physics there from 1924 to 1933. From 1922 to 1924 he also serves as president of the National Institute of Physics and Technical Standards. In 1897 he invents an efficient incandescent lamp, the Nernst lamp. His 1905 formulation of the third law of thermodynamics earns him the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1920. During experiments to demonstrate this theorem it becomes evident that at lower temperatures, the temperature curves of specific heats correspond to Einstein’s quantum theoretical predictions of 1907. Nernst is a dedicated scientific organizer. He is co-founder of the Electrochemical Society and a promoter of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. The influential Solvay Conferences are attributable to his initiative.