Home

= = =Werner Heisenberg= Born: December 5, 1901 From: Würzburg, Germany






 * About me:** I have always been interested in math and science. As a high school student I studied the mathematics behind Einstein's relativity theory and taught myself calculus. I am a passionate German theoretical physicist involved with quantum mechanics. I have also contributed to the fields of nuclear physics, quantum field theory, and particle physics. I am most famous for my uncertainty principal. I am proud of my German heritage and after the war dedicated much of my time in order to help the German scientific community rebuild. I am very passionate about philosophy and it's relationship to quantum mechanics. I have just recently retired, and will be continuing to explore the relationship between the two.
 * Relationship Status:** Married to: Elisabeth Schumacher
 * Field:** Quantum Mechanics - Theoretical Physicist
 * Networks:** University of Göttingen, University of Copenhagen, University of Leipzig, 1927 Solvay Conference on Particle Physics
 * Screen name:** CertainlyWerner


 * University:**
 * University of Munich
 * Doctorate 1923 under Arnold Sommerfield
 * University of Göttingen
 * Habilitation 1924 under Max Born


 * Work:**
 * University of Göttingen
 * Privatdozen (Private Lecturer) from 1924 to 1927
 * University of Copenhagen
 * Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship - Researcher with Neils Bohr from Sept. 1924 to May 1925
 * University Lecturer and Assistant to Bohr 1926
 * University of Leipzig
 * Head of Department of Physics and Professor of Theoretical Physics 1927
 * University of Berlin
 * Professor of Physics and Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics 1942
 * Deutsche Forschungsrat (German Research Council)
 * President 1949-1951
 * Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
 * President 1953
 * Retired 1970


 * Prizes and Awards:**
 * Nobel Prize in Physics 1932
 * Max Planck Metal of the German Physical Sciences for extraordinary achievements in theoretical physics 1933
 * Honorary Doctorates from University of Bruxelles, the Technological University of Karlsruhe, and the University of Budapest.
 * Order of Merit of Bavaria
 * Romano Guardini Prize
 * Grand Cross for Federal Service with Star
 * Knight of the Order of Merit (Peace Class)
 * Fellow of the Royal Society of London
 * Member of the Academies of Sciences of Göttingen, Bavaria, Saxony, Prussia, Sweden, Rumania, Norway, Spain, The Netherlands, Rome (Pontifical), the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (Halle), the Lincean Academy (Rome), and the American Academy of Sciences


 * Religion:** Lutheran Christian - “The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you.”
 * People who inspire Werner:** Max Born, Neils Bohr, Wolfgang Pauli
 * Favorite Quotations:**
 * “Not only is the Universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think.”
 * “The reality we can put into words is never reality itself.”
 * "We have to remember that what we observe is not nature in itself but nature exposed to our method of questioning.”
 * “If nature leads us to mathematical forms of great simplicity and beauty—by forms, I am referring to coherent systems of hypotheses, axioms, etc.—to forms that no one has previously encountered, we cannot help thinking that they are “true,” that they reveal a genuine feature of nature…. You must have felt this too: the almost frightening simplicity and wholeness of the relationships which nature suddenly spreads out before us and for which none of us was in the least prepared.”


 * Hobbies:** Mountaineering, Playing piano, Spending time with family
 * Interests:** Classical music, Classical literature, Philosophy


 * Books:**
 * =====//The Physical Principles of Quantum Theory// (1928) =====
 * =====//Philosophic Problems of Nuclear Science// (1952) =====
 * =====//The physicist's conception of nature// (1958) =====
 * =====//Physics and Philosophy////: The Revolution in Modern Science// (1962) =====
 * =====//Introduction to the Unified Field Theory of Elementary Particles// (1966) =====
 * =====//Physics and Beyond// (1971) =====
 * =====//Encounters with Einstein, and Other Essays on People, Places, and Particles// (work in progess) =====


 * Accomplishments:**
 * Early in my career I wrote a paper that stated, “The present paper seeks to establish a basis for theoretical quantum mechanics founded exclusively upon relationships between quantities which in principle are observable.” This showed that quantum mechanics could account for many of the properties of atoms and atomic events. Max Born and Pascual Jordan helped me to apply non-commutative algebra into matrices. I credit both Born and Jordan for their help with the formation of the matrix mechanics and wish that they had received more credit publicly.


 * I am the founder of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principal which states that, “The more precisely the position is determined, the less precisely the momentum is known in this instant, and vice versa.” This discovery had profound implications involving the concept of causality because since the precise position and momentum cannot be known, a particle’s future cannot be determined and only a range of possibilities of future motions can be calculated. “I believe that the existence of the classical "path" can be pregnantly formulated as follows: The "path" comes into existence only when we observe it.” It is important for the further study of quantum mechanics to understand what limitations we will face. This concept has become a vital component of the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics.


 * After World War II, I became the director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics, which I worked to rebuild the institute as a leading physics organization and to revive research in Germany. I worked to develop a direct role for the federal government in forming a national policy for science and technology. "I wished to procure for science for some right to take the initiative in publics affairs." I also involved myself in reestablishing international relations by traveling on many lecture tours. I was appointed the president of the Alexander can Humboldt Foundation whose purpose is to facilitate collaboration of young scholars and scientists from about the world with Germany. I also worked to expand the Max Planck Institute for Physics. I also worked on finding a universal theory of fundamental particles. I am very interested in philosophy and worked on several books the philosophical significance of quantum mechanics.