Heisenberg, Werner
Heisenberg, Werner (Karl) (1901-1976), a German physicist. He helped found quantum mechanics, the field of physics that applies Max Planck's quantum theory to the behavior of matter; he developed the uncertainty principle, a major law of modern physics; and he proposed a universal formula to explain all laws of physics. Heisenberg was awarded the 1932 Nobel Prize in physics for his achievements in quantum mechanics.
In their investigations of quantum mechanics, Heisenberg and the Dutch physicist H. A. Kramers analyzed the dispersion of light by atoms. By 1925 these investigations led Heisenberg to formulate a mathematical model of the atom. His atomic system was called matrix mechanics. Wave mechanics, developed by Erwin Schrödinger in 1926, was merged with Heisenberg's work to form modern quantum mechanics.
Heisenberg announced the uncertainty principle in 1927. It asserts that it is impossible to determine at the same time both the position and the momentum of subatomic particles (such as electrons), because subatomic events are altered or destroyed by the act of observing them.
Heisenberg was an assistant to Max Born and Niels Bohr after receiving a Ph.D. from the University of Munich in 1923. He was a professor at the University of Leipzig, 1927-41. Heisenberg directed the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics (Berlin), 1941-46, and its successors—the Max Planck Institute for Physics (Göttingen), 1946-58, and then the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics (Munich), 1958-71.
Among his translated works are The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory (1930). A Physicist's Conception of Nature (1958), and Physics and Beyond (1971).