Erwin Schrödinger

Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger was an Austrian theoretical physicist born on 12 August 1887 and died on 4 January 1961. His major contributions to quantum theory include creating the Schrödinger equation, which describes how a system’s wave function evolves over time, and introducing the phrase “quantum entanglement” in 1935. Alongside Paul Dirac, he received the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics for uncovering new and fruitful approaches to atomic theory.

Beyond quantum mechanics, Schrödinger worked across many areas of physics: statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, dielectrics, color theory, electrodynamics, general relativity, and cosmology, and he tried multiple times to develop a unified field theory. His book *What Is Life?* tackled genetics from a physicist’s perspective. He also explored philosophy, the philosophical aspects of science, ancient and Eastern thought, ethics, and religion, and wrote on theoretical biology. In popular culture, he is most famous for the “Schrödinger’s cat” thought experiment. A *Physics World* poll ranked him and Dirac tied for eighth among the greatest physicists ever.

In his personal life, Schrödinger lived with both his wife and his mistress, a situation that caused difficulties and likely led him to leave his position at Oxford. After Oxford, he held a post in Graz, Austria, until the Nazi takeover in 1938, when he fled. He eventually settled in Dublin, Ireland, where he stayed until retiring in 1955. He returned to Vienna in 1956 as an emeritus professor and died of tuberculosis in 1961. In 1989, allegations of sexual abuse involving several minors surfaced; a defence challenging some of these claims was published in 2026.

Schrödinger was the only child of Rudolf Schrödinger, a botanist, and Georgine Emilia Brenda Bauer, whose father was a chemistry professor. His mother was half Austrian and half English. His father was Catholic, his mother Lutheran. Though an atheist, Schrödinger had strong interests in Eastern religions and pantheism, often using religious symbolism in his work and viewing his scientific pursuits as an intellectual approach to divinity. He learned English from his British maternal grandmother. From 1906 to 1910, he studied at the University of Vienna under Franz S. Exner and Friedrich Hasenöhrl, earning his Ph.D. under Hasenöhrl in 1910. He also did experimental work with Karl Wilhelm Friedrich “Fritz” Kohlrausch, then became Exner’s assistant and completed his habilitation in 1914.

During World War I, from 1914 to 1918, Schrödinger served as a commissioned officer in the Austrian fortress artillery in locations including Gorizia, Duino, Sistiana, Prosecco, and Vienna. In 1920, he became an assistant to Max Wien at the University of Jena, then an associate professor at the University of Stuttgart later that year. The next year, he became a full professor at the University of Breslau. In 1921, he moved to the University of Zurich, and in 1927 succeeded Max Planck at the University of Berlin. He left Germany in 1933 due to strong disapproval of Nazi antisemitism, becoming a Fellow at Magdalen College, Oxford. Soon after, he shared the Nobel Prize with Dirac. His Oxford arrangement failed, partly because his unconventional domestic life—sharing quarters with two women—was not accepted. He lectured at Princeton in 1934 but declined a permanent position, again due to his living situation. He nearly took a post at the University of Edinburgh but visa delays intervened, and he accepted a position at the University of Graz in 1936. He also received an offer for a chair at Allahabad University in India.

In 1935, after extensive correspondence with Albert Einstein, Schrödinger devised the “Schrödinger’s cat” thought experiment. After the Anschluss in 1938, his opposition to Nazism and his earlier flight from Germany caused trouble in Graz. He issued a statement recanting his opposition, which he later regretted, but the university dismissed him for “political unreliability.” Harassed and ordered not to leave, he fled to Italy with his wife, then took visiting roles at Oxford and Ghent.

In 1939, Éamon de Valera, Ireland’s head of government, personally invited Schrödinger to Dublin. The next year, he joined the newly founded Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies as Director of the School of Theoretical Physics, remaining until his retirement in 1955. He lived modestly on Kincora Road in Clontarf; plaques mark both his home and his workplace on Merrion Square. Schrödinger felt a unique bond with Ireland as an Austrian.