Werner Karl Heisenberg
- Born:
- December 5, 1901, Würzburg, Germany
- Died:
- February 1, 1976, Munich, Germany
- Nationality:
- German
- Profession(s):
- Theoretical Physicist
Early Life and Education
- Father, August Heisenberg, was a professor of Greek philology.
- Attended Maximilian Gymnasium in Munich.
- Studied physics and mathematics at the University of Munich under Arnold Sommerfeld.
- Received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Munich in 1923.
Career and Major Achievements
- Worked as an assistant to Max Born at the University of Göttingen.
- Developed matrix mechanics, one of the first formulations of quantum mechanics, in 1925.
- Formulated the uncertainty principle in 1927, a cornerstone of quantum mechanics.
- Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Leipzig (1927-1941).
- Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics (later Max Planck Institute for Physics) in Berlin (1942-1945) and Göttingen (1946-1970).
- Led Germany's wartime nuclear research program.
- Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1932 for the creation of quantum mechanics, the application of which has, among other things, led to the discovery of the allotropic forms of hydrogen. The official record is that Werner Heisenberg Nobel Prize was awarded "for the foundation of quantum mechanics."
Notable Works
- The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory (1930)
- Physics and Philosophy (1958)
- Introduction to the Unified Field Theory of Elementary Particles (1966)
Legacy and Impact
Werner Heisenberg made fundamental contributions to quantum mechanics, laying the groundwork for modern atomic and nuclear physics. His work on the uncertainty principle revolutionized our understanding of the limits of knowledge in the quantum realm.