Russian chemist was born on August 8, 1802 in Geneva, Switzerland, to a painter's family. When he was three years old, he settled in Moscow, Russia with his father, so he went to school and worked in Russia. In 1825, he graduated from the Department of Medicine at Dolpat University with a doctorate in medicine. In 1826, he gave up medicine and specialized in chemistry, and went to the Bajilias laboratory in Stockholm, Sweden to study chemistry. From then on, he formed a profound friendship with Bajilias. After returning to China, he went to Urals to do geological survey and exploration work, and later went to Irkutsk to study minerals. In 1828, he was elected as an academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences due to his outstanding contribution to chemistry, and was immediately hired as Professor of Theoretical Chemistry at the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology and Professor of the Central Normal College and the School of Mining. In 1838, he was elected as a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Gess died in St. Petersburg on December 13, 1850.

In his early years, Gess was engaged in analytical chemistry research. He analyzed minerals and natural gas near Baku and made certain achievements. Later, he also discovered that sucrose could be oxidized into sugar acid. In 1830, he specialized in the improvement of methods for measuring chemical heat effects. He improved the ice calorimeters of Lavoisier and Laplace, thereby measuring the heat in chemical reactions more accurately. After many experiments in 1836, he concluded a rule: the total heat change in any chemical reaction process, whether the reaction is completed in one step or in steps, is the same. In 1860, it was published as the additive conservation law of heat. This is the world-famous Gess Law.

Hess's law

Gaise's law is a pioneer in determining the conservation of energy and is the basis of chemical thermodynamics. When a reaction that cannot occur directly requires the heat of reaction, the heat of reaction can be measured using a step-by-step method and summed up to obtain it indirectly. That's why we often call Gess the founder of thermochemistry.

Gess's main works include "Fundamentals of Pure Chemistry". This book was a widely used textbook in Russia at that time. It had been published for seven editions and also had a certain influence on the European chemical community.

Comments: He has made certain contributions to the chemical community and published the world-famous Gaise's Law.