Werner Heisenberg

He met Elisabeth Schumacher at a music recital in January 1937 and they were married four months later. The couple enjoyed classical music and Heisenberg was experienced as a pianist.

The couple had seven children over thirteen years, including twins in January 1938. Their son Jochen went on to study physics and teach at the ‘University of New Hampshire’.

Despite his devotion to science, he was a practicing Lutheran for his entire life. He gave many lectures about science and religion over the course of his career.

Heisenberg was born on December 5, 1901, in Würzburg, Germany. His father was a professor of medieval and Greek studies.

His brother Erwin was one year older and was a constant source of competition. Erwin grew up to become a chemist.

He studied physics under Max Born at the ‘University of Munich’, receiving his doctorate in 1923. The physicist Niels Bohr was also very influential in Werner’s career, under whom the latter learnt the nuances of atomic physics.

After completing his doctorate, he went to research with his hero Niels Bohr in 1925. Their work at the ‘University of Copenhagen’ resulted in one of Heisenberg's first important papers.

He became a professor at the ‘University of Leipzig’ in 1927 and began teaching doctoral students. His program was highly sought after and resulted in dozens of important scientific alumni.

His teaching often afforded him the opportunity to travel and lecture outside of Germany. He gave lectures in Japan, India, and the United States in 1929.

His work creating a neutron-proton model of the nucleus was published in three significant papers. He was honored with the Nobel Prize in 1932 for his discovery.

When Hitler assumed control of Germany in 1933, Heisenberg was criticized by the SS for supporting Jewish scientists. He was threatened to be sent to a concentration camp despite his unwavering support for Germany.

His paper on quantum mechanics in 1925 was a major scientific breakthrough and led to developments in matrix mechanics. He worked with the Austrian physicist Wolfgang Pauli and the two became close friends.

He developed the uncertainty principle in 1927 while researching at the ‘University of Copenhagen’. This theory established the inverse relationship between the precise position of a particle and its momentum which became a fundamental principle in further physics research.

James Chadwick discovered the neutron in 1932, leading to Heisenberg's neutron-proton model in the same year. His three papers on the topic were monumental in the field of quantum physics.