Schrödinger and Heisenberg: Complicated Nominations for the Royal Society

In 1945, two of the pioneers of quantum mechanics, Erwin Schrödinger and Werner Heisenberg, were both nominated by Paul Dirac for election to the Royal Society of London. Max Born, Rudolf Peierls, and Francis Simon, who had emigrated from Germany to the UK in the 1930s, had become British citizens and Fellows of the Royal Society. They strongly opposed Heisenberg's nomination, expressing concerns about his activities in the recent war. Born supported Schrödinger's nomination but this was opposed by Peierls and Simon. In time, the opposition became more muted and Schrödinger, to his great delight, was elected in 1949. However, it took another six years for Heisenberg to be elected following his efforts to rebuild science in West Germany after the war.

Through the use of new archival material, David Clary will describe these developments and the subtle aspects of electing controversial scientists from overseas to the Royal Society after World War II.

Professor Sir David Clary

Sir David Clary is Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford. He was previously President of Magdalen College, Oxford and was the first Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK Foreign Office. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and was knighted in 2016 by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to international science. His recent books include Schrödinger in Oxford, The Lost Scientists of World War II, and Walter Kohn: From Kindertransport and Internment to DFT and the Nobel Prize.

Please note: The event is held in English.

You are cordially invited:
Prof Dr Christina Brandt ML, Prof Dr Dieter Hoffmann ML and Ronja Steffensky

ML = Member of the Leopoldina

Livestream

The event will be streamed online via Zoom.

Livestream

The privacy statement of the provider applies.

Contact

Ronja Steffensky
Acting Head of Department Centre for Science Studies
E-Mail: lzfw(at)leopoldina.org