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Irving Langmuir (1881-1957), American chemical physicist. Langmuir's most famous publication was his article 'The Arrangement of Electrons in Atoms and Molecules' in which, he outlined his 'concentric theory of atomic structure'. Langmuir is credited with the invention of the first, gas-filled tungsten lamp. He was the first industrial chemist to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1932), for his work on surface adsorption. His studies led to his coining the terms electrovalence, covalence and plasma. (KEYSTONE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES LIBRARY/NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY/ SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY)