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Wolfgang Ernst Pauli—Leading Theoretical Physicist
Wolfgang Ernst Pauli—Leading Theoretical Physicist Robert A. Kyle, M.D., and Marc A. Shampo, Ph.D. *HhHJHyFyyBiivvflsjfi
Wolfgang Pauli was born on Apr. 25, 1900, in Vienna, Austria. Son of a professor of colloid chemistry at the University of Vienna, he studied advanced mathematics and understood Einstein's general theory of relativity while still in high school. Under the guidance of Professor Arnold Sommerfeld, German physicist (1868-1951), he ob tained a Ph.D. degree in theoretical physics in 3 years, which was the shortest time allowed by the University of Munich, Germany. While there, he was asked by Professor Sommerfeld to write an article on Einstein's theory of relativity for the Encyclopaedia of Mathematical Sciences. This monograph, the first comprehensive presentation of the mathematical and physical ideas of Einstein, was extremely well received because of its clarity and brevity. Pauli then spent a year at the University of Gbttingen, Germany, as an assistant to Dr. Max Born, a German physicist (1882-1970), and the following year worked with Niels Bohr, a Danish physicist (1885-1962), in Copen hagen, Denmark. He became a privatdozent at the Uni versity of Hamburg, Germany, and remained there until 1928, when he was appointed to the staff of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. He spent the years of World War II at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.
Pauli postulated a fourth quantum number for the energy levels of electrons within atoms. This concept permitted the arrangement of electrons of the various elements in shells and subshells. He also postulated that when a beta particle is emitted, another particle without charge is also emitted and that this second particle carries off the missing energy. The following year, Enrico Fermi, an Italian physicist (1901-1954), named this postulated particle the "neutrino" ("little neutral one"). Pauli re ceived the Nobel Prize for physics in 1945. Professor Pauli was never considered a good lecturer; he often mumbled to himself and seemed to think over the subject during his lecture. This habit produced a disorganized presentation and made his lectures diffi cult to understand. Nevertheless, his students were fas cinated and greatly stimulated. He was impossibly clumsy with his hands and with machines. For example, he passed his driving test after taking 100 lessons but afterward seldom drove an automobile. Another example was the so-called Pauli effect: it was said that his presence in a laboratory would cause machines to stop running, glass apparatus to break, or leaks to develop in vacuum systems. Pauli was very critical and was sometimes feared by his fellow physicists throughout the world. At one time, he stated to another scientist, "I do not mind if you think slowly, but I do object when you publish more quickly than you think." Because he was one of the great thinkers in theoretical physics, when new ideas arose investigators would ask, "What does Pauli say about it?" During his lifetime, he played an important role in almost every area of theoretical physics. Pauli died on Dec. 15, 1958, in Zurich after a short ill ness. At his funeral, it was said that he was "the conscience of theoretical physics." He was honored on a stamp issued by Austria in 1983.
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Wolfgang Pauli was born on Apr. 25, 1900, in Vienna, Austria. Son of a professor of colloid chemistry at the University of Vienna, he studied advanced mathematics and understood Einstein's general theory of relativity while still in high school. Under the guidance of Professor Arnold Sommerfeld, German physicist (1868-1951), he ob tained a Ph.D. degree in theoretical physics in 3 years, which was the shortest time allowed by the University of Munich, Germany. While there, he was asked by Professor Sommerfeld to write an article on Einstein's theory of relativity for the Encyclopaedia of Mathematical Sciences. This monograph, the first comprehensive presentation of the mathematical and physical ideas of Einstein, was extremely well received because of its clarity and brevity. Pauli then spent a year at the University of Gbttingen, Germany, as an assistant to Dr. Max Born, a German physicist (1882-1970), and the following year worked with Niels Bohr, a Danish physicist (1885-1962), in Copen hagen, Denmark. He became a privatdozent at the Uni versity of Hamburg, Germany, and remained there until 1928, when he was appointed to the staff of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. He spent the years of World War II at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.
Pauli postulated a fourth quantum number for the energy levels of electrons within atoms. This concept permitted the arrangement of electrons of the various elements in shells and subshells. He also postulated that when a beta particle is emitted, another particle without charge is also emitted and that this second particle carries off the missing energy. The following year, Enrico Fermi, an Italian physicist (1901-1954), named this postulated particle the "neutrino" ("little neutral one"). Pauli re ceived the Nobel Prize for physics in 1945. Professor Pauli was never considered a good lecturer; he often mumbled to himself and seemed to think over the subject during his lecture. This habit produced a disorganized presentation and made his lectures diffi cult to understand. Nevertheless, his students were fas cinated and greatly stimulated. He was impossibly clumsy with his hands and with machines. For example, he passed his driving test after taking 100 lessons but afterward seldom drove an automobile. Another example was the so-called Pauli effect: it was said that his presence in a laboratory would cause machines to stop running, glass apparatus to break, or leaks to develop in vacuum systems. Pauli was very critical and was sometimes feared by his fellow physicists throughout the world. At one time, he stated to another scientist, "I do not mind if you think slowly, but I do object when you publish more quickly than you think." Because he was one of the great thinkers in theoretical physics, when new ideas arose investigators would ask, "What does Pauli say about it?" During his lifetime, he played an important role in almost every area of theoretical physics. Pauli died on Dec. 15, 1958, in Zurich after a short ill ness. At his funeral, it was said that he was "the conscience of theoretical physics." He was honored on a stamp issued by Austria in 1983.
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