Erwin Schrödinger

Lore & Background

Schrödinger was born in Vienna, the only child of a botanist father and a mother of half Austrian and half English descent. He studied under Franz S. Exner and Friedrich Hasenöhrl at the University of Vienna, earning his Ph.D. in 1910. After war service in the Austrian fortress artillery from 1914 to 1918, he held academic positions in Jena, Stuttgart, Breslau, and Zurich before succeeding Max Planck at the University of Berlin in 1927. In 1933, he left Germany due to disapproval of Nazi antisemitism, becoming a Fellow at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he soon received the Nobel Prize. His unconventional domestic arrangements—living with both his wife and his mistress—caused problems at Oxford and later at Princeton, leading him to take a position at the University of Graz in 1936. After the Anschluss in 1938, he was dismissed for 'political unreliability' and fled to Italy, then to Oxford and Ghent.

Reader's Guide

Schrödinger's significance lies in his foundational contributions to quantum mechanics, particularly the Schrödinger equation, which remains a cornerstone of the field. His coining of 'quantum entanglement' and the 'Schrödinger's cat' thought experiment, proposed in 1935 after correspondence with Albert Einstein, have become central to discussions of quantum interpretation and popular culture. Beyond physics, his book What Is Life? bridged physics and biology, inspiring the discovery of DNA's structure. He also wrote on philosophy, ethics, and religion, reflecting his interest in Eastern thought and pantheism. His career was marked by displacement due to political upheaval—fleeing Nazi Germany and later Austria—and by personal controversies, including his domestic arrangements and later allegations of sexual abuse. Despite these, his scientific legacy endures, and he was ranked tied for eighth in a Physics World poll of the greatest physicists of all time.

Did You Know?

• Schrödinger coined the term 'quantum entanglement' in 1935.
• He shared the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics with Paul Dirac.
• His book What Is Life? inspired James Watson and Francis Crick in their discovery of the DNA double helix.
• He became a naturalized Irish citizen in 1948 while retaining Austrian citizenship.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"No self is of itself alone. It has a long chain of intellectual ancestors. The "I" is chained to ancestry by many factors … This is not mere allegory, but an eternal memory." — Erwin Schrödinger "we never experiment with just one electron or atom or (small) molecule. In thought-experiments we sometimes assume that we do." — Erwin Schrödinger "I insist upon the view that 'all is waves'." — Erwin Schrödinger "Multiplicity is only apparent, in truth, there is only one mind..." — Erwin Schrödinger