Werner Karl Heisenberg was born on December 5, 1901 in Würzburg and studied at the University of Munich. In 1923 he was an assistant to the German physicist Max Born at the University of Göttingen, and from 1924 to 1927 he obtained a fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation to work with the Danish physicist Niels Bohr at the University of Copenhagen.
In 1927 he was appointed professor of theoretical physics at the University of Leipzig and later taught at the universities of Berlin (1941-1945), Göttingen (1946-1958) and Munich (1958-1976). In 1941 he became director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics, which in 1946 was renamed the Max Planck Institute for Physics.
Heisenberg made the most important contributions of him in the theory of atomic structure. In 1925 he began to develop a system of quantum mechanics, called matrix mechanics, in which the mathematical formulation was based on the frequencies and amplitudes of the radiations absorbed and emitted by the atom and on the energy levels of the atomic system.
The uncertainty principle played an important role in the development of quantum mechanics and in the progress of modern philosophical thought. In 1932, Heisenberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. Among his numerous writings are "The physical principles of quantum theory", "Cosmic radiation, Physics and philosophy and Introduction to the unified theory of elementary particles".
Inclined from a young age towards mathematics, and to a lesser extent towards physics, he tried in 1920 to start a doctorate in pure mathematics, but Ferdinand von Lindemann rejected him as a student because he was close to retiring. He recommends her to do her doctoral studies with the physicist Arnold Sommerfeld as a supervisor, who willingly accepts it. During his first year he essentially takes math courses with the idea of moving on to work in number theory as soon as he gets the chance, but little by little he becomes interested in theoretical physics. He tries to work on Einstein's Theory of Relativity and Pauli advises him to dedicate himself to Atomic Theory in which there was still a great discrepancy between theory and experiment.
He obtains his doctorate in 1923 and immediately travels to Göttingen, where he works as an assistant to Max Born. In 1924 he traveled to Copenhagen and met Niels Bohr.
During his studies at the University of Munich, Heisenberg decidedly opted for physics, without giving up his interest in pure mathematics. At the time, however, physics was considered essentially an experimental science, and Heisenberg's inability to do laboratory work would complicate his doctoral process. Arnold Sommerfeld, his thesis advisor, recognized his extraordinary abilities for mathematical physics but there was some opposition to his graduation because of his inexperience in experimental physics. Finally, Heisenberg received his doctorate in 1923, presenting a paper on fluid turbulence. In these years of doctorate he met Wolfgang Pauli, with whom he would collaborate closely in the development of quantum mechanics.
From Munich, Heisenberg went on to the University of Göttingen, where Max Born taught, and in 1924 he went on to the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen directed by Niels Bohr. There Heisenberg met Albert Einstein among other prominent physicists and began his most fruitful and original period, which resulted in the creation of matrix mechanics. This achievement would be recognized with the achievement of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1932.
In 1925, Heisenberg invented matrix quantum mechanics. What underlies his approach to the subject is great pragmatism. Instead of concentrating on the evolution of physical systems from beginning to end, he concentrates his efforts on obtaining information by knowing the initial and final state of the system, without worrying too much about knowing precisely what happened in between. He conceives the idea of grouping the information in the form of double-entry tables. It was Max Born who realized that this way of working had already been studied by mathematicians and it was nothing other than matrix theory. One of the most striking results is that matrix multiplication is not commutative, so any association of physical quantities with matrices will have to reflect this mathematical fact. This leads Heisenberg to state the Uncertainty Principle.
Quantum theory is enormously successful, managing to explain virtually the entire microscopic world. In 1932, shortly before turning 31, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for "The creation of quantum mechanics, the use of which has led, among other things, to the discovery of the allotropic forms of hydrogen."
