Erwin Schrödinger

Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961), Austrian physicist and Nobel laureate, best known for his mathematical studies of the wave mechanics of orbiting electrons.

Schrödinger was born in Vienna and educated at the University of Vienna. He taught physics at the universities of Stuttgart, Germany; Breslau, Poland; Zurich; Berlin; Oxford; and Graz, Austria. He was director of the school of theoretical physics of the Institute of Advanced Study in Dublin from 1940 until his retirement in 1955.

Schrödinger's most important contribution to physics was his development of an elegant and rigorous mathematical description of the discrete standing waves that describe the distribution of electrons within the atom. Schrödinger proved that his theory, published in 1926, was mathematically equivalent to the theories of matrix mechanics advanced the previous year by the German physicist Werner Heisenberg. Together, their theories formed much of the foundation of quantum mechanics (see Quantum Theory). Schrödinger shared the 1933 Nobel Prize for Physics with the British physicist Paul Dirac for his contribution to the development of quantum mechanics. His research included important work on atomic spectra, statistical thermodynamics, and wave mechanics. See Spectroscopy; Thermodynamics; Wave Motion.

Schrödinger's books include Collected Papers on Wave Mechanics (1928), Modern Atomic Theory (1934), Statistical Thermodynamics (1945), and Expanding Universes (1956).