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Home , Max Born, Max Planck Medal, Otto Stern, Werner Heisenberg

(1882-1970)

Max Born was born , 1882 in Breslau, . His father, Gustav Born, was a professor at the University of Breslau. His mother was from a Silesian industrial family. Max inherited a love of the arts and music from his mother who died when he was four years old. Born attended the Gymnasium and then shortly after his graduation from school his father died. This did not stop his thirst for knowledge so he pursued more education at several universities, including those in Breslau, , Zurich and Göttingen. At these institutions he mainly studied mathematics, and astronomy. Born was awarded the prize of the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Göttingen in 1906 and graduated in 1907. From there he traveled to for a short time to study with J.J. Thomson. In 1908 Born returned to Breslau where he studied the . The next year Born was invited to collaborate on one of his papers about relativity by a former professor at the University of Göttingen, . Unfortunately, shortly after Born arrived at Göttingen, Minkowski died. Born was then given the task of reviewing all of Minkowski’s work on physics and publishing some of Minkowski’s unfinished work. Once he finished this task he became a lecturer in Physics. In 1915 Born was appointed as a professor (extraordinarius) at University in order to assist . Unfortunately he was unable to fill this position because he joined the German Armed forces due to compulsory military service. Born worked for the army in a scientific office where he studied sound ranging and the theory of crystals. Born hated the military and his time there was cut short of the usual one year of mandatory service because he had asthma.

War times were quite difficult for Max Born but they proved to be productive none the less. It was during the war that he published his first book, Dynamik de Kristallgitter (Dynamics of Crystal Lattices). In this publication he interpreted a group of experiments that he started back at the University of Göttingen. Born also strengthened his friendship with Einstein during the war. During time that they spent together they would not only discuss physics but with Einstein on the violin and Born on the piano they played sonatas together.

In 1919, Born became a professor at the University of -on-Main. His assistant, , later won a for the work he did under Born. In 1921 Born returned once again to the University of Göttingen to be a professor. This time he stayed there for 12 years and completed some of his most important work. This included studies of crystal lattices and quantum theory. Born published a paper on and the principles of with and in 1925. In August of 1926 he published his work on the statistical interpretation of quantum mechanics. Born was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1954 for this work. In 1933 he was forced to emigrate so he returned to Cambridge for 3 years. In 1936 he was appointed Tait Professor of Natural Philosophy in and held this position until he retired in 1953.

Born remained active in long after his retirement. He was specifically interested in the philosophy of science and the impact of science on humanity. In the interest of philosophy Born was quoted as saying, “I am now convinced that is actual philosophy”. He was also quite concerned about the possibility of mass destruction because of scientific advances. Like many other scientists, Born knew how much devastation an atomic bomb could impart so he made a statement against nuclear warfare which was signed by several Nobel laureates.

Max Born died , 1970. He was the grandfather of singer/actress Olivia Newton John.

Born won the Nobel Prize in 1954 for his statistical representation of the position of an within an . He changed the quantum theory of the time which regarded as particles by giving a mathematical description which represented their observed behavior more accurately. What Born discovered was that if you take the square of the absolute value of Schrödinger’s equation you get the of finding a particle in a given location. He said that you cannot predict the exact position of an electron but you could only give the probability of finding an electron in a given location.

Awards Awarded Fellowship of 13 different cities. Honorary Doctorates at 9 different universities. Stokes Medal of Cambridge of the of the Royal Society () Gunning-Victoria Jubilee prize of the Royal Society (Edinburgh)

References

http://nobelprize.org/physics/laureates/1954/born-bio.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/max_born http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Born.html www.nobel-winners.com/physics/max_born.html www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history//born.html Quantum Theory by: J.P. McEvoy and Oscar Zarate The Restless Universe by Max Born