Werner Heisenberg

Werner Karl Haisenberg  was a German theoretical physicist best known for creation of quantum physics theory along with Max Born and Pascual Jordan.

werner haisenberg

Early Life

Werner Heisenberg was born in Würzburg, Germany on December 5th 1901. Werner was a son to Kaspar Earnesta August Heisenberg, a secondary school teacher and his wife, Annie Wecklein. In 1910, Heisenberg family moved to Munich where Werner remained until going to Göttingen.


Heisenberg finished his elementary education in Würzburg. After moving to Munich, Heisenberg begins his nine year long course of study at the humanistic Max-Gymnasium principled by his grandfather. From 1920. to 1923. he studied physics and mathematics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen where he studied with Max Born. He received his doctorate in 1923, at Munich under Sommerfeld.


Werner Heisenberg stands shoulder to shoulder with most of affirmed physicists of his time. Along with people such as Niels Bohr and Paul Dirac, Heisenberg left a notable influence in understanding of physics of the time. He is one the greatest contributors to development of quantum mechanics and its modern interpretation.

Among other memorable achievements Heisenberg formulated the neutron-proton model of the nucleus, the quantum theory of ferromagnetism, the S-matrix theory in particle scattering while publishing over 600 genuine research papers and essays. Heisenberg’s most notable achievement is the uncertainty principle of 1927 which represented one of the early key breakthroughs in quantum mechanics. Heisenberg was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1932.

Later life

On April 29th 1937, Heisenberg married Elisabeth Schumacher with whom he had seven children. During his career, Heisenberg held several prominent positions in scientific community. Werner Heisenberg died February 1st, 1976, succumbing to kidney cancer.

Werner Heisenberg quotes


“Light and matter are both single entities, and the apparent duality arises in the limitations of our language.”
