Newsletter
Register to get the latest information and travel deals.
Additional Portals
Pauli, Wolfgang (1900-1958)
Copyright: IMAGNO/Ullstein
Wolfgang Pauli was born as son of a doctor and professor for biochemistry on 25 April 1900 in Vienna. He studied physics at the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, where he received his doctorate in July 1921 for a thesis on the quantum theory of ionized molecular hydrogen. His teacher Arnold Sommerfeld soon recognized Pauli’s unusual talent and commissioned him to write a summary of Einstein’s relativity theory for a German mathematical encyclopedia. The abstracted was highly praised by Einstein himself; published as a monograph, it remains a standard reference on the subject to this day.
In 1921/22 Pauli worked as assistant to the famous physicist Max Born in Göttingen, and the following year at what became the Niels Bohr Institute for Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen. He then spent 1923 to 1928 as a lecturer at the University of Hamburg. In 1924 Pauli put forward a new quantum number (related to spin) for electrons, and the following year he enunciated the exclusion principle, also known as Pauli’s principle.
In 1928, Pauli was named professor of theoretical physics at the Zurich Technical University, where, in 1931, he predicted that conservation laws demanded the existence of a particle later found, the neutrino. After being at Princeton University during World War II, Pauli became a U.S. citizen, but he spent his last years in Zurich. Back in Zurich, Pauli’s institute became a world center of quantum field theory. Moreover Pauli also devoted much time to the archetypal background of physical ideas.
The last year of his life Pauli let himself be carried away by the “world formula”, a non-linear equation of his life-long friend Werner Heisenberg. But realizing the shortcomings of this approach, Pauli soon withdrew again in disappointment. After a short struggle with cancer he died in Zurich on 15 December 1958.
Wolfgang Pauli
In 1921/22 Pauli worked as assistant to the famous physicist Max Born in Göttingen, and the following year at what became the Niels Bohr Institute for Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen. He then spent 1923 to 1928 as a lecturer at the University of Hamburg. In 1924 Pauli put forward a new quantum number (related to spin) for electrons, and the following year he enunciated the exclusion principle, also known as Pauli’s principle.
In 1928, Pauli was named professor of theoretical physics at the Zurich Technical University, where, in 1931, he predicted that conservation laws demanded the existence of a particle later found, the neutrino. After being at Princeton University during World War II, Pauli became a U.S. citizen, but he spent his last years in Zurich. Back in Zurich, Pauli’s institute became a world center of quantum field theory. Moreover Pauli also devoted much time to the archetypal background of physical ideas.
The last year of his life Pauli let himself be carried away by the “world formula”, a non-linear equation of his life-long friend Werner Heisenberg. But realizing the shortcomings of this approach, Pauli soon withdrew again in disappointment. After a short struggle with cancer he died in Zurich on 15 December 1958.
Wolfgang Pauli
Accommodations