-
Heisenberg's birth
Werner Karl Heisenberg was born on the 5th of December, 1901 in Würzburg, Germany. His father was a scholar of ancient Greek philology and modern Greek literature which gave him the opportunity to attend good schools where his father taught. -
Quantum Mechanics
Heisenberg, along with Max Born, and Pascual Jordan wrote a paper founding the new wave of quantum mechanics which relied on matrix algebra, and is still largely relevant today. Quantum mechanics is simply the physics of the motion of atomic and subatomic particles. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Werner-Heisenberg -
Uncertainty Principle
In March of 1927, Heisenberg, after more work on the expression of quantum mechanics wrote was was possibly his most landmark paper in which he described the uncertainty principle. This says that both the momentum, which is an product of a particles mass and velocity, and its position could not be measured simultaneously and that the uncertainties of these measurements have an inverse relationship. -
1932 Nobel Prize
Due to Heisenberg's revolutionary theories on quantum mechanics, based on his original principle that you cannot represent in exact terms that which you cannot observe, specifically relating to electrons and their positions, he was awarded the 1932 Nobel Prize in Physics. Especially since this work led to many other important discoveries in physics. He was given this award in 1933. https://youtu.be/TQKELOE9eY4 -
Period: to
Nuclear energy research
During WWII, Heisenberg was forcibly recruited to work on Germany's nuclear research team. His team was unsuccessful at creating either an atomic bomb or a nuclear reactor for several reasons including a lack of sufficient financial resources. Additionally, there are many theories that Heisenberg could have purposely sabotaged the project due to not wanting his research to go towards destruction. https://www.atomicheritage.org/profile/werner-heisenberg -
Period: to
Additional quantum field work
After the war and until he acquired a teaching position in 1958, Heisenberg continued to work on his quantum theories, proposing quantum field theory, and a unified field theory, neither which met with as much success as his earlier work. http://holbert.faculty.asu.edu/eee460/anv/Why%20the%20Germans%20Failed.html -
Heisenberg's death
Heisenberg died of kidney cancer in 1976 in Munich, 6 years after retiring from teaching. He was survived by his wife and seven children
Werner Heisenberg – Biographical. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Media AB 2020. Mon. 7 Dec 2020. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1932/heisenberg/biographical/