

There is a minuscule amount of radioactivity within the box, such that there is an equal probability of an atom decaying or not decaying. In this experiment, he placed a cat in a steel box. His theories drove controversy in the scientific community, and in response to this criticism, Schrödinger developed a thought experiment popularly known as Schrödinger’s cat. He described this behavior through his famous Schrödinger equation. In 1926, he published the foundational articles of quantum wave mechanics, the first being, “Quantisierung als Eigenwertproblem” or “Quantization as an Eigenvalue Problem.” Through this paper and those that followed, Schrödinger built upon previous work performed by Louis de Broglie, who claimed that particles of matter sometimes act like waves in certain circumstances. While in Ireland, he fathered two more daughters with another woman. He lived in a household with two different women as romantic partners. While he was married to Bertel, he fathered a daughter with the wife of a colleague. Schrödinger’s personal life was confusing. It was during this time that he married his wife, Annemarie Bertel. He performed research on thermodynamics, atomic spectra, and the heat of particular solids.

As a professor of theoretical physics, Schrödinger’s pupils regarded him as a fantastic instructor. Following his studies, he took a research position at the university’s Second Physics Institute.Īfter serving as an officer in World War I in the Austrian artillery, Schrödinger took a professorship at the University of Zurich, where he remained for the next six years. In 1906 he enrolled at the University of Vienna, where he studied physics under Franz S. Schrödinger’s years in Gymnasium provided him with a deep affection for poetry and the sciences. He earned an undergraduate degree in chemistry, studied botany, published a series of essays on plant phylogeny, and even took to painting. Schrödinger’s father was interested in a variety of subjects. In 1933, he co-won the Nobel Prize for Physics for the introduction of Schrödinger’s wave, which is still widely used in modern quantum theory.īorn in Vienna, Austria, on August 12, 1887, Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger was the only child of Rudolph and Georgine Schrödinger.

Taught at prestigious universities such as Princeton, Oxford, and the University of Vienna.īest known for his cat thought experiment, Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger contributed significantly to fields of wave mechanics and wave equation.Earned the Max Planck Medal, the highest award in German physics.Won the Nobel Prize in physics for his Schrödinger equation (1933).One of the fathers of quantum mechanics, he made revolutionary advances in physics.
