Max Born
1882–1970, Breslau (now Wrocław), Göttingen, Germany
German-born physicist of Jewish descent who introduced the probabilistic interpretation of the quantum wavefunction.
Born was one of the chief architects of matrix mechanics alongside Heisenberg and Jordan. In 1926 he proposed that the squared modulus of the Schrödinger wavefunction represents a probability density — the interpretation now bearing his name, which became the standard foundation of quantum mechanics. He was forced to leave Germany in 1933 when the Nazis came to power, moving to Britain to teach at the University of Edinburgh. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1954.
Nobel-winning work
Born received the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physics 'for his fundamental research in quantum mechanics, especially for his statistical interpretation of the wavefunction'. In his 1926 collision papers he proposed that |ψ|² gives the probability density of finding a particle — the 'Born rule' — replacing deterministic trajectories with probabilities. He had earlier co-developed matrix mechanics with Heisenberg and Jordan (1925).
Workplaces: University of Göttingen, University of Edinburgh
Germany, United Kingdom