Facts:   - death place: cambridge , massachusetts    - doctoral students: gilbert smyth n. lewis farrington daniels malcolm dole charles phelps    - prizes: davy prize for chemistry -lrb- 1914 -rrb- franklin medal -lrb- 1916 medal -rrb- willard gibbs award -lrb- 1912 -rrb- nobel    - known for: atomic weights thermochemistry electrochemistry    - death date: 2 april 1928    - field: physical chemistry    - doctoral advisor: josiah parsons cooke      - work institution: harvard university    - birth date: 31 january 1868    - name: theodore william richards    - image size: 180px    - nationality: united states    - image: richards_theodore_william_lab . jpg    - birth place: germantown , pennsylvania    - alma mater: haverford college harvard university   Based on these bullet points, write a short biography describing the life of theodore william richards .
The answer to this question is:
theodore william richards -lrb- january 31 , 1868 -- april 2 , 1928 -rrb- was the first american scientist to receive the nobel prize in chemistry , earning the award `` in recognition of his exact determinations of the atomic weights of a large number of the chemical elements . ''