Werner Heisenberg

By JRaine
  • Birth

    Würzburg Germany
  • Freikorps ("free regiments")

    Served in the Freikorps after WW1 for a short time Miller, Arthur (2009). 137: Jung , Pauli and the pursuit of a scientific obsession. New York: Norton & Company. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-393-33864-5
  • Earned PHD in physics at the University of Munich

    Quoted as saying "Modern physics has definitely decided in favor of Plato. In fact the smallest units of matter are not physical objects in the ordinary sense; they are forms, ideas which can be expressed unambiguously only in mathematical language" Wilber, Ken (10 April 2001). Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the World's Great Physicists. ISBN 978-0-8348-2283-2.
  • Period: to

    Researcher at the University of Copenhagen

    Worked with Niels Bohr a huge influence within particle physics at the time.
  • Defends uncertainty

    "In quantum mechanics, there is no measurement procedure by which one can accurately measure the position of a system without disturbing it momentum, in the sense that some measure of inaccuracy in position and some measure of the disturbance of momentum of the system by the measurement cannot both be arbitrarily small" Heisenberg, 1927
  • Albert Einstein nominates Heisenberg and two others for Nobel Prize

    Einstein nominated Heisenberg, Born, and Jordan for the creation of quantum mechanics and their work with the systematic language of matrices. Bernstein, Jeremy (March 2004). "Heisenberg in Poland". Am. J. Phys. 72 (3): 300–304. Bibcode:2004AmJPh..72..300B. doi:10.1119/1.1630333.
  • Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics

    For his theory of quantum mechanics, published in 1925, when he was only 23 years old.
  • Period: to

    Captured and held at Farm Hall, UK

    Nazi Germany's greatest nuclear physicists were detained by Allied military and intelligence services at Farm Hall. During this time all of their conversations were recorded and Heisenberg was noted that he had never thought of creating an atomic bomb and had only thought of atomic energy production. Bernstein, Jeremy (1996). Hitler's Uranium Club. Woodbury NY: AIP Press. p. 139.
  • President of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation

    Focused research on theoretical idea of the unified field theory of elementary particles.
  • He lectured at Harvard University

    historical development of the concepts of quantum theory. Laid out the philosophy established over his life that quantum particles can never truly be seen but can be quantified mathematically. Heisenberg, Werner (1975). "Development of concepts in the history of quantum theory". American Journal of Physics. 43 (5): 389–394. Bibcode:1975AmJPh..43..389H. doi:10.1119/1.9833.
  • Death

    Munich, West Germany (now Germany)