Paul Dirac

Paul Dirac (1902-1984), British theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate, renowned for his prediction of the existence of the positron, or antielectron, and for his research in quantum theory.

Dirac was born in Bristol, and educated at the Universities of Bristol and Cambridge. His quantum theory of electron motion led him in 1928 to postulate the existence of a particle identical to the electron in every aspect but charge, the electron having a negative charge and this hypothetical particle a positive one. Dirac's theory was confirmed in 1932 when the American physicist Carl Anderson discovered the positron. In 1933 Dirac shared the Nobel Prize for Physics with the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger, and in 1939 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was a professor of mathematics at Cambridge from 1932 to 1968, a professor of physics at Florida State University from 1971 until his death, and a member of the Institute for Advanced Study periodically between 1934 and 1959. Dirac's writings include Principles of Quantum Mechanics (1930). See also Electron; Physics: Modern Physics.