Werner Heisenberg
1901–1976, Würzburg, Germany, Munich, Germany
German physicist who developed matrix mechanics and formulated the uncertainty principle bearing his name.
In 1925, at age 23, Heisenberg developed matrix mechanics — the first modern mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics, completed together with Max Born and Pascual Jordan. In 1927 he stated the uncertainty principle, asserting that a particle's position and momentum cannot both be known with perfect precision simultaneously. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1932.
Nobel-winning work
Heisenberg received the 1932 Nobel Prize in Physics (awarded 1933) 'for the creation of quantum mechanics, the application of which has, inter alia, led to the discovery of the allotropic forms of hydrogen'. His 1925 paper 'Über quantentheoretische Umdeutung…' founded matrix mechanics — with Born and Jordan he completed it the same year — predicting the ortho/para hydrogen forms (1929). The uncertainty principle followed in 1927.
Workplaces: University of Leipzig, Max Planck Institute
Germany