Niels Henrik David Bohr (1885-1962)

Born in 1885 in Denmark, Niels Bohr excelled throughout his academic career in physics as well as mathematics. While enrolled in the University of Copenhagen in 1903, he majored in physics but minored in mathematics, astronomy, and chemistry. He worked with many physicists of the day including Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, and Joseph John Thomson. Bohr spent the bulk of his life refining his atomic theories including his theory of complementarity. Later in his life, Bohr would become a major player in the Manhatten Project, which developed the first Atomic Bomb. After the development of the bomb in 1944, Bohr tried to persuade the leaders of the day to ban or limit the build up of nuclear weapons saying, "Humanity will be confronted with dangers of uprecedented character unless, in due time, measures can be taken to forestall a disastrous competition in such formidable armaments and to establish an internation control of the manufacture and use of powerful materials." Bohr was the first recipient of the US Atoms for Peace award in 1957. He died from a heart attack in 1962.

Ludwig Boltzmann (1844-1906)

Born in 1844 in Austria, Ludwig Boltzmann obtained a doctorate from the University of Vienna in 1866 for his work on the kinetic theory of gasses. He spent most of his life moving between Graz and Vienna, however he also lived in Heidelberg and Berlin. He moved around very much, not spending more than three years in any given place. He attributed this to his personality, which seemed that it would be labelled bipolar or manic depressive by today's standards. Botlzmann created the theory of statistical mechanics. This study was based on the patterns of behavior by certain elements and molecules and how they contributed to the patterns of behavior of the substances of which the atoms were building blocks. His ideas, however, were not widely accepted. In 1906, while on vacation, Ludwig Boltzmann

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committed suicide by hanging himself. The two possible reasons were his "bipolar" personality, or the lack of acceptance of his theories.

Marie Curie (1867-1934)

Born in 1867 in Poland, Marie Curie would be one of the most famous female physicists as well as the first woman to win the Nobel Prize. Her family valued education and at a young age Curie went to Paris to study mathematics, physics, and chemistry. She was the first woman to teach at the Sorbonne. In Paris she met her future husband, Pierre Curie, who taught physics at the University of Paris. Her work was based on the source of radioactivity and she discovered two highly radioactive elements, "radium" and "polonium." The Curies both won the Nobel Prize for this. Unfortunately a few years after, Pierre Curie, overexposed to radiation, died after being run over by a horse drawn wagon. Thereafter Marie Curie took over Pierres chair, becoming the first woman to teach at the Sorbonne. She continued her theoretical work on radioactivity, introducing into physics the terms disintegration (the breakdown of an atom in radioactivity) and transmutation (the radioactive alteration of an atom into an atom of a different element). In 1911 she won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. During World War I Curie played an active role in the use of radiation for medical purposes, an interest that became dominant thereafter. She became perhaps the most famous woman in the world, a reputation about which she had mixed feelings, since it interfered with her scientific work, which for her always came first. However, she was able to use her fame to promote the medical uses of radium, by facilitating the foundation of radium therapy institutes in France, Poland, the United States, and elsewhere. She was thus able to give concrete expression to her belief in the value of science to humanity, a belief that she had held since her days in the Polish underground university.

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Throughout the 1920s Marie Curies health declined and she had to have several cataract operations. Because of lack of knowledge about the dangers of radioactivity, she had been exposed during her career to massive doses of radiation (see Radiation Effects, Biological). In 1934, as a consequence of this, she died of aplastic anaemia in an Alpine sanatorium.

John Bardeen (1908-1991)

American physicist who was cowinner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in both 1956 and 1972. He shared the 1956 prize with William B. Shockley and Walter H. Brattain for their joint invention of the transistor. With Leon N. Cooper and John R. Schrieffer he was awarded the 1972 prize for development of the theory of superconductivity. Bardeen earned bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin (Madison) and obtained his doctorate in 1936 in mathematical physics from Princeton University. A staff member of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, from 1938 to 1941, he served as principal physicist at the U.S. Naval Ordnance Laboratory in Washington, D.C., during World War II. After the war Bardeen joined (1945) the Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, N.J., where he, Brattain, and Shockley conducted research on the electron-conducting properties of semiconductors. On Dec. 23, 1947, they unveiled the transistor, which ushered in the electronic revolution. The transistor replaced the larger and bulkier vacuum tube and provided the technology for miniaturizing the electronic switches and other components needed in the construction of computers. In the early 1950s Bardeen resumed research he had begun in the 1930s on superconductivity, and his Nobel Prize-winning investigations provided a theoretical explanation of the disappearance of electrical resistance in materials at temperatures close to absolute zero. The BCS theory of superconductivity (from the initials of Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer) was first advanced in

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1957 and became the basis for all later theoretical work in superconductivity. Bardeen was also the author of a theory explaining certain properties of semiconductors. He served as a professor of electrical engineering and physics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, from 1951 to 1975.

Jocelyn Bell Burnell (1943)

Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell was born Susan Jocelyn Bell in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1943. As a child, she was an avid reader of her fathers many books, and was particularly drawn to those on astronomy. While at a Quaker boarding school in England, Bell Burnell was inspired to study physics by one of her teachers. She went on to earn a B.Sc. degree in physics in 1965 from the University of Glasgow, and a Ph.D. in radio astronomy in 1968 from Cambridge University. After earning her Ph.D. at Cambridge, Bell Burnell held a number of different positions before becoming Professor of Physics and Department Chair at Open University (1991 2001) and later Dean of Science at the University of Bath (2001 - 2004) in England. Now officially retired, Bell Burnell continues to be active in academic life. Bell Burnell is perhaps best known for her discovery of pulsars in 1967 as a graduate student at Cambridge. The discovery, published in the journal Nature in 1968, resulted from her analysis of enormous amounts of data collected from a radio telescope built by her and other research assistants of advisor, Anthony Hewish, to study quasars. Although Bell Burnells role in the discovery of pulsars was not acknowledged by the Nobel Committee when they awarded the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics to Hewish and corecipient Martin Ryle, she has received many other prestigious awards and medals for her discovery and other contributions to astronomy.

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Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (1902-1984)

Born in 1902 in England, Paul Dirac was raised in somewhat of a unhappy home. Dirac's father was very strict with his sons and even insisted that only French be spoken at the dinner table. This effectively alienated Paul and his older brother. In primary school, it was clear that Dirac had skilll in mathematics. When he turned twelve, he entered secondary school. During this time, World War I was beginning so the upperclassmen were sent off to war. This allowed Dirac and underclassmen more laboratory time and access to other facilities. He completed his education in 1918 then studied electrical engineering. He obtained his degree in 1921. Dirac was awarded a doctorate in 1926 for his work into Quantum Mechanics. He went to Copenhagen afterward to work with Niels Bohr. He also interacted with Robert Oppenheimer, Max Born, James Franck and Igor Tamm. Dirac Published The Priniciples of Quantum Mechanics in 1930 and won the Noble Prize for Physics in 1933. In 1969, Dirac retired and moved with his family to Florida, where he was appointed professor of physics at Florida State University. He died in 1984.

Enrico Fermi (1901-1954)

Born in 1901 in Rome, Enrico Fermi had an obvious ability in mathematics and physics that was recognizable in grammar school. Fermi's father's colleagues encouraged the young boy's interests. In 1918, Fermi attended the University of Pisa, and graduated with a doctorate in physics by 1922. In 1926 Fermi discovered statistical laws, otherwise known as the Fermi statistics. These lawas governed particles subject to Pauli's exclusion principle which conflicted with "bosons," which obey the Bose-Einstein statistics. In 1927 Fermi became Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Rome, which he retained until escaping Mussolini's facist dictatorship in 1938

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by fleeing to the United States. During his post at the University of Rome, Fermi evolved the Betadecay theory. The work demonstrated the early steps that would lead to nuclear fission and the Atomic Bomb. During 1942 he became a leader of the Manhatten Project. After World War II, Fermi accpeted a professorship at the Institute for Nuclear Studies of the University of Chicago. While holding this position, Fermi delved into astro-physics. Specifically cosmic rays, on which he developed theories to explain their origin. He held this position until his death in 1954.

Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976)

Born in 1901 in Germany, Werner Heisenberg's father was a professor of classical languages and encouraged his son's interests with school although he was a strict man. As a teenager, Heisenberg joined a youth group which trained young men for military service later in life. In addition, he also spent much time reading about physics and mathematics. During World War I, Heisenberg undertook a lot of independents study,due to the fact that the school was occupied by troops. After the war, he enrolled in the University of Munich. While in Munich, Heisenberg studied number theory and intended to get his doctorate by researching that topic. Unfortunately, the professor that he wanted to be his supervisor declined to accept the post. Under a different professor, Heisenberg began to study theoretical physics. With his new position and focus, he met many of the prominent physicists listed on this page. He attended the lectures of Niels Bohr and also shook hands with Albert Einstein. In the decade before World War II, the Nazis used Heisenberg in their atomic bomb program. Although the project failed, it is not known if it was due to lack of resources or Heisenberg neglecting to do anything for the Nazi's due to his own personal beliefs. In 1937 he married Elisabeth Schumacher. After World War II, Heisenberg was appointed the director of the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics. Heisenberg held

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this post until resigning in 1970.

Maria Goeppert Mayer (1906-1972)

Born in 1906 in what was then Germany, Maria Mayer had a few hurdles in her younger life. Although her family had a long and illustrious history of being professors, it was not certain that Mayer would be able to enter the universities of the day. Eventually her perserverence overcame, and she was enrolled into the University at Gottingen. She had planned to study mathematics, but found herself more attracted to physics. In 1930 she took her doctorate in theoretical physics. About this time, she met her future husband Joseph Edward Mayer, and they both went to the Johns Hopkins University. However, it was the time of the depression, and difficult for her to find any work. Without pay, Mayer kept working on physics for the pure enjoyment of it. During WWII she learned nuclear physics, and in 1946 she and her husband moved to Chicago, where Maria worked in collaboration with Enrico Fermi. She was employed as a professor of physics at the Institute for Nuclear Studies, and worked at the Argonne National Laboratory. Mayer was a co-recipient of the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physics for her work on theories of magic numbers and nuclear shell structure.

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Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

Born in 1642 in England, the date of Newton's exact birth is slightly under contention. Although the calendar in use when he was born places his birthday on Christmas Day, the Gregorian calendar that has been adopted since then places Newton's birthday on January 4th of 1643. His father died a few months before his son was born. Newton's mother remarried, however Newton and his step father did not get along very well. Although Newton is described as one of the most intelligent persons in the world, he did not perform well in school. In fact his reports state that he was "idle" and "inattentive." His uncle prepared him to enter a university, and this is when Newton really admitted that he had a passion for learning. In the Trinity College of Cambridge, Newton studied mathematics, philosophy, law, and began to delve into the newest branch of learning at the time; physics. He studied Copernicus' theory of the planets, developed his laws of gravity and motion, and was also one of the first people to split visible light into the spectrum. When England was invaded during this time, and King James fled to France, Newton was placed in one of the highest positions for a temporary government until a new King or Queen could be found. Before his death, Newton was knighted. This was in recognition of his life and his achievements in science, which was a first by the standards that were set in that century.

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