Biography
Heisenberg studied physics at the University of Munich from 1920 to 1923. There he also did his doctorate under Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld on the stability and turbulence of fluid flows. In between, in 1922 and 1923, he continued his physics studies at Göttingen University with the well-known physicist Max Born. From 1924 he became Max Born's assistant. In Göttingen, Heisenberg completed his habilitation as a professor of physics. From 1924 to 1926 he worked at the University of Copenhagen under the well-known Danish physicist Niels Henrik David Bohr. Between 1924 and 1927, Heisenberg, together with Max Born and Pascual Jordan, developed the theory of quantum mechanics. From 1927 to 1941 Werner Heisenberg taught as a professor of physics at the University of Leipzig.
During this time he headed the Theoretical-Physical Institute in Leipzig. In 1927 his work entitled "On the illustrative content of quantum theoretical kinematics and mechanics" was published. In the same year, the physicist caused a sensation in the professional world with his "Heisenberg uncertainty theory". It states that it is physically impossible to determine the position and momentum of an electron with absolute accuracy at the same time. In 1928 his book entitled "The Physical Principles of Quantum Theory" was published. The following year he traveled to the USA, Japan and India to give lectures. In 1932, Werner Heisenberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his achievements in the field of quantum mechanics. A year later he was awarded the Max Planck Medal.
The National Socialists barred Heisenberg from teaching and research work at Munich University in 1936 because of his advocacy of the achievements of Albert Einstein and the Austrian physicist Lise Meitner. Heisenberg stayed in Leipzig and devoted himself to physics there. In the same year he married Elisabeth Schumacher. A total of seven children were born from this union. From 1941, the physicist became head of the Berlin Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, which was later renamed the Max Planck Institute. In the same year he taught at the Physics Institute at the University of Berlin. From 1942 to 1945, Heisenberg headed the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in Dahlem and also taught as a professor at the University of Berlin, where he was involved in the Army Weapons Office's uranium project. From 1945 to 1946, Heisenberg was interned in England with other German nuclear physicists and scientists from the National Socialists' uranium project.
After the Second World War, Werner Heisenberg became director and professor of the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Göttingen from 1946 to 1958. His research area included, among other things, atomic fission, which occurs due to cosmic radiation in space. In 1948 he accepted a visiting professorship in Cambridge, England. From 1949 to 1951, Heisenberg served as President of the German Research Council and the traditional Göttingen Academy of Sciences. In 1950 and 1954 he gave guest lectures in the USA. In 1952 Werner Heisenberg became vice-president of the "European Council for Nuclear Physics Research". From 1953 he worked on the "world formula" named after him in the field of field theory of elementary particles. The Heisenberg world formula, which has become popular, is to be understood as a unified theory of matter with which all basic laws of nature are to be understood. In 1953 Heisenberg became the first president of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Bonn-Bad Godesberg.
He held this position until 1975. The institution came into existence on December 10, 1953. In 1955 and 1956, Heisenberg was a visiting lecturer at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. In 1957, in the Göttingen "Declaration of the 18 Atomic Scientists," he publicly declared his opposition to equipping the Bundeswehr with nuclear weapons. In the same year Heisenberg was awarded the "Pour de Mérite" medal. In 1958 he presented his "Uniform Theory of Elementary Particles," which became known as the world formula. From 1958 to 1970 he taught as a professor of physics at the University of Munich and at the same time headed the Max Planck Institute there. In 1964 he was awarded the Great German Cross of Merit with star and shoulder ribbon.
Werner Heisenberg died on February 1, 1976 in Munich.
