Werner Heisenberg was a German theoretical physicist, best known for asserting the uncertainty principle of quantum theory. He made important contributions to quantum mechanics, nuclear physics, quantum field theory, and particle physics. Heisenberg was awarded the 1932 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Heisenberg studied physics and mathematics from 1920 to 1923 at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. At Munich, he studied under Arnold Sommerfeld and Wilhelm Wien. At Göttingen, he studied physics with Max Born and James Franck, and he studied mathematics with David Hilbert. He received his doctorate in 1923, at Munich under Sommerfeld. He completed his Habilitation in 1924, at Göttingen under Born.

From 17 September 1924 to 1 May 1925, under an International Education Board Rockefeller Foundation fellowship, Heisenberg went to do research with Niels Bohr, director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics at the University of Copenhagen.

Heisenberg, along with Max Born and Pascual Jordan, set forth the matrix formulation of quantum mechanics in 1925. In 1926 Heisenberg joined Bohr at the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen. This turned out to be one of the most productive periods in Heisenberg's life. It was in Copenhagen, in 1927, that Heisenberg developed his uncertainty principle, while working on the mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics. In his paper on the uncertainty principle, Heisenberg used the word "Ungenauigkeit" (imprecision).

Heisenberg's role in the Nazi war effort in World War II is the subject of great controversy. Some historians believe that he actively tried to help Germany develop an atomic weapon. Others depict him as hero who used his prominent position to delay research on the German atomic bomb.

At the end of the Second World War he, and other German physicists, were taken prisoner by American troops and imprisoned in England for six months, but in 1946 he returned to Germany and reorganized, with his colleagues, the Institute for Physics at Göttingen. This Institute was, in 1948, renamed the Max Planck Institute for Physics.

Heisenberg was also president of the German Research Council, chairman of the Commission for Atomic Physics, chairman of the Nuclear Physics Working Group, and president of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

Sources

• Nobel Foundation, Heisenberg, Werner, The Nobel Prize in Physics 1932, Nobel Lectures, Physics 1922-1941, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1965.
• O'Connor, John and Edmund F. Robertson, Werner Karl Heisenberg, MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews, Scotland, Accessed 30 December 2008.
• PBS.org, Werner Heisenberg, Accessed 30 December 2008.
• Wikipedia Contributors, Werner Heisenberg, Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, Accessed 30 December 2008.