by Stephanie Strickland. In fiction, Gibbs appears as the mentor to character Kit Traverse in Thomas Pynchon's novel Against the Day (2006). That novel also prominently discusses the birefringence of Iceland spar, an optical phenomenon that Gibbs investigated. Gibbs stamp (2005) In 2005, the United States Postal Service issued the American Scientists commemorative postage stamp series designed by artist Victor Stabin, depicting Gibbs, John von Neumann, Barbara McClintock, and Richard Feynman. The first day of issue ceremony for the series was held on May 4 at Yale University's Luce Hall and was attended by John Marburger, scientific advisor to the president of the United States, Rick Levin, president of Yale, and family members of the scientists honored, including physician John W. Gibbs, a distant cousin of Willard Gibbs. Kenneth R. Jolls, a professor of chemical engineering at Iowa State University and an expert on graphical methods in thermodynamics, consulted on the design of the stamp honoring Gibbs. The stamp identifies Gibbs as a "thermodynamicist" and features a diagram from the 4th edition of Maxwell's Theory of Heat, published in 1875, which illustrates Gibbs's thermodynamic surface for water. Microprinting on the collar of Gibbs's portrait depicts his original mathematical equation for the change in the energy of a substance in terms of its entropy and the other state variables. Outline of principal work Physical chemistry: free energy, phase diagram, phase rule, transport phenomena Statistical mechanics: statistical ensemble, phase space, chemical potential, Gibbs entropy, Gibbs paradox Mathematics: Vector Analysis, convex analysis, Gibbs phenomenon Electromagnetism: Maxwell's equations, birefringence See also Concentration of measure in physics Thermodynamics of crystal growth Governor (device) List of notable textbooks in statistical mechanics List of theoretical physicists List of things named after Josiah W. Gibbs Timeline of United States discoveries Timeline of thermodynamics References Bibliography Primary L. P. Wheeler, E. O. Waters and S. W. Dudley (eds.),The Early Work of Willard Gibbs in Applied Mechanics, (New York: Henry Schuman, 1947). . This contains previously unpublished work by Gibbs, from the period between 1863 and 1871. J. W. Gibbs, "On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances", Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 3, 108–248, 343–524, (1874–1878). Reproduced in both The Scientific Papers (1906), pp. 55–353 and The Collected Works of J. Willard Gibbs (1928), pp. 55–353. E. B. Wilson, Vector Analysis, a text-book for the use of students of Mathematics and Physics, founded upon the Lectures of