Fall.2008.MMA.Gels.Forte.Timeline

__History of the Atom__
Ronald Forte (1045 class) Peter Gels (1235 class)

[[image:http://www.aetheoraem.com/Leucippus1.jpg align="right" caption="Leucippus"]]Leucippus
There is not much information about Leucippus; however, it is widely believed that he started the foundation of atomism. Believed to be from Miletus during the fifth century BCE, he founded basics ideas, he saw as ideas to the way life was built. Later his disciple, Democritus, more concretely stated the theories. All that remains of his work was incorporated into Democritus’ work. It is believed that Leucippus’ original writings include //The Great World System// and //On the Mind//. Leucippus saw himself as a man of theories and devised no system to his thoughts. Most of his work for atomism is left unclear, and only scraps of information remain within Democritus’ works.

Leucippus’ theories began the idea of atoms. “These atoms, so small as to be invisible, were compact and eternal; between them was void. Only matter was real, for only matter could be touched. Diversity in matter occurs through differences in the shapes of the atoms: smooth atoms for sweetness, jagged atoms for bitterness. Soul atoms were said to be distributed throughout the body, giving it life and sensation. Certainly there is no suggestion of passivity. Nor was there "matter over mind" for mind (or soul) had the same capacity to act on matter as the body had on the mind. Both were composed of the same ultimate matter: atoms.” (// Early Origins of the Social Sciences). //

McDonald, Lynn. //Early Origins of the Social Sciences.// Montreal, PQ, CAN: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1993. p 25-6. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/mmac/10141444&ppg=37 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/337658/Leucippus http://www.iep.utm.edu/l/leucippu.htm
 * Copyright © 1993. McGill-Queen's University Press. All rights reserved.**

Democritus
Democritus, the disciple of Leucippus, is widely known as the formulator of the beginnings of atomic theory. Throughout his lifespan, 493-403 BCE (varying by source), he traveled to many countries. Over 300 fragments of his works remain, showing the value and legitimacy his genius. He was very ambitious given by him writing, “[I would] rather discover one cause than gain the kingdom of Persia.” This ambition and great mind lead Democritus to his atomic theories.

Democritus believed that matter and all that we know was formed by atoms and void, the space in between atoms being the void. Atoms were solid and indestructible, while void was the empty space between these atoms. Compounds were formed by the collision of an infinite number of atoms and an infinite amount of space. He believed some would bounce of each other, and others would “hook together.” Atoms were too small to perceive by ordinary senses and by having many compounds together, things would perceive to be the way they exist by our senses. Atoms have different shapes and depending on the shape, positions, and order, thus create different perceivable objects.

http://www.iep.utm.edu/d/democrit.htm http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/democritus/ http://www.thebigview.com/greeks/democritus.html McDonald, Lynn. //Early Origins of the Social Sciences.// Montreal, PQ, CAN: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1993. p 25-6. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/mmac/10141444&ppg=37

Aristotle
Aristotle, born in Stagira in 384 BCE, gained most of his knowledge and influence from his father, Nichomachus. His father interested Aristotle in the structure of things in general, giving him a keen skill in observation. His parents died during his childhood, later to be raised by Proxenus. At 18, he was a disciple of Aristotle at the Academy, Plato’sc school in Athens. He studied there for about 20 years. Plato viewed him as a bright student, and possibly the smartest. Aristotle and Plato disagreed on some views of life and when Aristotle moved on, he started to form his own theories of life. Around 324BCE, Aristotle founded a school, the Lyceum, in Athens. After being accused of disrespect for the gods, similar to Socrates, Aristotle fled to Chalcis, where he died in 322 BCE.

Aristotle’s atomic theory was based on the four main elements and qualities or characteristics. Fire, water, earth and air were the elements, and the qualities were hot, cold, wet and dry. The qualities could describe the elements, for example, fire would be the epitome of hotness and dryness. Each element could be changed into the other, through mixing solutions. He disputed about whether atoms were indivisible or not. His overall theory was based off god and the belief that god had a good share of what we call chemistry. Atoms were motionless, unless moved by a force known to him as God.

http://galileoandeinstein.physics.virginia.edu/lectures/aristot2.html http://science.jrank.org/pages/630/Atomic-Theory-History.html [|http://hilltop.bradley.edu/~rbg/el.html]

[[image:http://images.livescience.com/images/gm_Sir_Isaac_Newton_03_10.jpg align="left" caption="Sir Isaac Newton"]]Newton
Sir Isaac Newton was born in the manor house of Woolsthorpe in 1642. He attended Cambridge University in 1661 and remained there after graduating to lecture most years until 1692. During these years, he was in his prime of invention and discovery. He spent time in Lincolnshire during the span of the plague in Cambridge, 1665-1666, and prepared works in what is known as the //Principia//, later published in 1687. He moved to London as Warden of the Royal Mint. In 1699, he became Master of the Mint until his death in 1727. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, and late became President in 1703. Sir Isaac was knighted in 1705 in Cambridge. He is widely known as a mathematician and physicist. Through his leaps in physical laws of the world, he helped expand and further develop atomic theory.

Sir Isaac Newton accepted atomism, however, wondered about the idea of creation as a result of pure chance. He did not have any direct contributions to the time period’s atomic theory; however, through his study of physics, he has had a significant indirect contribution to atomic laws and characteristics of atoms on a microscopic scale. Although, is conception of god may have concluded his unfinished questions in atomic theory, his universal law of gravitation opened many questions and theoretical ideas which expanded modern atomic theory. In 1704 he proposed a mechanical universe with small solid masses in motion.

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/newton-Optics.html http://www.new-science-theory.com/isaac-newton-principia.html http://www.bookrags.com/research/atomic-theory-woc/

Lavoisier
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier was born in Paris on August 26, 1743. His father was a successful lawyer so he was born into wealth. At the College des Quatre Nations, he studied many different subjects. Expected to follow his father, he got his license to practice law in 1764. Between 1763 and 1767 he studied geology. Due to his studies and works, he was elected into the Royal Academy of Science in 1768. In the same year he married Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze. He returned to Paris to create a laboratory to conduct many different experiments, mostly due to his inherited wealth. He was executed after being arrested for being part of the Farmer’s General during the revolution in 1794.

Lavoisier contributed his studies with oxygen and atomic weights. He gave names to many substances, such as water being made up of oxygen and water. He was careful in observing the law of conservation of mass. This proved to help him in his studies of reactants and products. He invented a balance that was able to measure close to .0005 grams. This shows his respect for careful calculations. His name for substances gave meaning to the theories behind them, such as oxygen, meaning “acid-former” in Greek, had acidifying properties. He believed 33 substances to be “elements” according to his own definition.

http://www.chemheritage.org/classroom/chemach/forerunners/lavoisier.html http://mattson.creighton.edu/History_Gas_Chemistry/Lavoisier.html [|http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/~meg3c/classes/tcc313/200Rprojs/lavoisier2/home.html]

[[image:Coulomb.jpg align="left" caption="Coulomb"]]Coulomb
Charles Augustin Coulomb was born in 1736 in the Languedoc region of France. He spent his early life through Paris and Montpellier. Going to an army engineering school in Fance, Ecole du Genie, he learned a specialized skill. His accomplishments include the building of Fort Bourbon. Later, he returned to France where he worked on his research concerning electricity. He was more of an engineer than a chemist, but has made leaps to help understand the electrical components of atomic theory. What he discovered came to be known as Coulomb’s Law. He remained in Paris until his death in 1806.

Coulomb, as a physicist, studied more of electrical properties. He invented the torsion balance. It isolates electrical charges and converst the force into torque allowing it to be precisely measured. Coulombs balance worked with two balls that were charged and the resulting repulsion was measured. His studies led to Coulomb’s Law which describes the relationship between force, charge, and distance. This relationship helped measure quantitative measurements in atomic reactions.

http://corrosion-doctors.org/Biographies/CoulombBio.htm http://ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu/212_fall2003.web.dir/don_bahls/introduction.html

[[image:dalton1.gif align="left" caption="Dalton"]]Dalton
John Dalton, English teacher, chemist, and physicist, was born on September, 6, 1766. In his life he was interested in the atmosphere and is known to have over 200 thousand atmospheric observations in his notebooks. This lead to Dalton’s interest in gases. Through his experiments and calculations, he formed his atomic theory, which is what he is known for today. He taught himself his experiments and how to experiment. Believing himself to be more of a teacher than a chemist, he remained teaching until 1833. His experiments were well thought out and found many accurate discoveries. His atomic theory was later published in 1808 in his “New System of Chemical Philosophy.”

__ Dalton's Atomic Theory __ 1) All matter is made of atoms. Atoms are indivisible and indestructible. 2) All atoms of a given element are identical in mass and properties 3) Compounds are formed by a combination of two or more different kinds of atoms. 4) A chemical reaction is a **//rearrangement//** of atoms. Plain and simple, that is Dalton’s atomic theory. To break it down, he believed that all atoms were indivisible and indestructible, meaning that atoms were not able to be broken down any further. This was later proven to be wrong, but was widely accepted until the discovery much later. The second item of his theory described that all atoms of the same element are identical in mass meaning there is a constant mass for the same elements. This has remained true. Compounds are formed by a combination of 2 or more different kinds of atoms remains true to today as well. His belief that chemical reactions are really just the rearrangement of atoms is also true. Dalton is the most prominent father of atomic theory just because much of his work and studies have been accurate and have been the foundation of many future discoveries.

http://dl.clackamas.edu/ch104-04/dalton%27s.htm http://library.thinkquest.org/15567/bio/dalton.html [|http://www.iun.edu/~cpanhd/C101webnotes/composition/dalton.html] http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/atoms/dalton.shtml

__Small, Spherical, Indivisible, Solid Mode__l When John Dalton theorized in 1807 that the atom was the smallest piece of matter, he described atoms as small spheres that are indestructible. This model shows nothing more than a ball, but this is what he believed atoms to be.

[[image:Mendeleev.gif align="left" caption="Mendeleev"]]Mendeleev
Dmitri Mendeleev was born the youngest of many children in Siberia on February 7, 1834. His father became blind and his mother started a glass factory when he was in his teens. Upon finishing high school, his father passed and his mother’s glass factory burned down, so his mother moved him to St. Petersburg where she worked endlessly to get him through college. In St. Petersburg, soon after his acceptance into Pedagogical Institute, his mother passed away and shortly after, his sister as well, both from tuberculosis. In 1856, he began to teach at the St. Petersburg University, where he did most of his work writing books and performing his experiments. Through his research, discoveries, and leaps in science he received many awards and recognition until his death on February 2, 1907.

One of the biggest contributions to atomic theory Dmitri Mendeleev offered was his organization to the periodic table. He was able to group together elements that had similar properties which are still used to this day. In 1869, he prepared a presentation titled, “The Dependence Between the Properties of the Atomic Weights of the Elements.” The overall main points of the presentation were that the elements, if arranged by atomic weights, would have properties that reoccurred periodically. Thus, some elements’ properties can be predicted by their atomic number. Many other points were made during his lecture, but overall, he was able to organize all the elements into the rows and columns we know and expected the discoveries of new elements that had similar properties to those periodically related to them.

http://www.shodor.org/unchem/basic/atom/index.html http://corrosion-doctors.org/Biographies/MendeleevBio.htm http://genchem.chem.wisc.edu/lab/PTL/ptl/BIOS/mendel.htm

Crookes
Sir William Crookes was born in London on June 17, 1832. He was born to a tailor named Joseph Crookes. He went to school at Chippenham, Wiltshire. He began his chemistry interest when he entered the Royal College of Chemistry in Hanover Square, London when he was 15. He became and remained an assistant in the college between 1850 and 1854. During this time, he worked on original research specifically with the element selenium and its compounds. After leaving the Royal College, he went to Radcliffe Observatory and became the superintendent of the meteorological department in 1854. The following year he was elected as a lecturer in chemistry at the Chester training college. The year after he married, later to father three sons and one daughter. From then on he spent his time in London doing independent research. Knighted in 1897 and died on April 4, 1919.

Crookes had many contributions to chemistry, among which is the discovery of the element thallium in 1861. He then became interested in vacuums in which he needed to work with thallium and continued with his research. This lead to his invention known as the Crookes radiometer. He never fully explained the observations and discoveries which seemed to be attraction and repulsion from radiation. Later he became interested in cathode rays which he believed to be a fourth state of matter called “radiant matter.” This belief was mistaken. Either way, his new invention, Crookes tube, proved to be vital to future leaps in radioactivity.

http://www.sirwilliam.org/en/swc.html http://www.theiet.org/about/libarc/archives/biographies/crookes.cfm http://www.chemeddl.org/collections/ptl/PTL/chemists/bios/crookes.html

[[image:rontgen_460.gif align="left" caption="Röntgen and The First X-Ray"]]Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen
March 27 1845 – February 10 1923 German 1895 Discovered X-Rays

Rontgen was born in Lennep, Prussia on March 27 1845 and he was an only child. In March of 1948, he moved to Apeldoorn, Netherlands and went to a private school. From 1861-1863 he went to Utrecht Technical School and was later expelled for refusing to tell the school who drew a portrait of a teacher. In 1869 he graduated with a Ph. D. from the University of Zurich as a mechanical engineer. He had family in Iowa and planed to emigrate, but WWI stopped him from doing this and he stayed in Munich for the rest of his career. Rontgen died on February 10, 1923 from carcinoma of the intestine.

In 1895 Rontgen was studying cathode rays and he found that if you enclose the tube in a black carton with a plate at the end where the rays come out covered with barium platinocyanide. It would produce a florescent effect and even two meters away it would still be florescent. During some of his experiments he discovered that different thicknesses would affect the color that was shown on the plate. When his wifes hand was passed through the rays and the plate it produced shadows from the bones in her hand and the ring that she was wearing. This was the first X-Ray ever to be taken. For discovering the X-Ray, Rontgen was award the honorary Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Wurzburg.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Conrad_R%C3%B6ntgen http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1901/rontgen-bio.html

Antoine Henri Becquerel
December 15 1852 – August 25 1908 French 1896 Discovered Radioactivity

Becquerel was born in Paris, France on December 15, 1852 he is part of four generations of scientists and scholars in his family. He studied science at Polytechnic School, and engineering at National school of Bridges and Roads, which was civil engineering. In 1890 he married Louise Désirée Lorieux. In 1892 he became Professor of Applied Physics in the Department of Natural History at the Paris Museum. Then in 1895 he became a Professor at the Polytechnic. In 1889 he was elected a member of the French Academy of Sciences and became a Life Secretary of the academy. He was married to Mlle Janin and had a son in 1878, which was the fourth generation of scientists. He died August 25, 1908 at the age of 55 at Le Croisic.

Becquerel first started out experimenting with polarization of light, phosphorescence, and terrestrial magnetism. In 1896 he became fascinated with the radioactivity that was created by the X-ray. He then investigated if there was a connection between X-rays and phosphorescence. He did this by taking some uranium salts and placed them near the photographic plate covered with opaque paper. After trying this the plate was fogged and the salts were emitting rays. Becquerel found that the rays that were being emitted were making gasses ionize and they could be deflected by electric and magnetic fields, this was radiation. In 1903 he received the Nobel Prize for Physics along with Marie Curie for discovering Becquerel radiation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Becquerel http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1903/becquerel-bio.html

Marie Skłodowska–Curie [[image:curie.jpg width="329" height="500" align="right" caption="Skłodowska–Curie "]]
November 7 1867 – July 4 1934 French 1898 Discovered radium and polonium

Marie Curie was born in Warsaw, Poland on November 7, 1867 she lived in Poland until 1891 when she moved to Paris. In Paris she went to Sorbonne and she received her Licenciateships in Physics and the Mathematical Sciences. In 1894 she married Pierre Curie a professor at the School of Physics. She succeeded her husband as Head of the Physics Laboratory at the Sorbonne and got her Doctor of Science degree in 1903. After her husband died in 1906 she took his spot as Professor of General Physics in the Faculty of Sciences. Through her life she promoted using radium during World War I. In 1929 President Hoover presented her with $50,000 to buy radium for her laboratory in Warsaw. On July 4, 1934 she died of aplastic anemia caused by the exposure to radiation.

Curie was inspired by the discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel. Her and her husband analyzed and researched radioactivity which lead them to discover the isolation of polonium and radium. Curie discovered how to separate radium from radioactive materials. She studied the properties of radium and found that it could be used therapeutically. And she promoted the use of radium in World War I to relieve the soldiers form their pain. Curie also received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903 for her study of spontaneous radiation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Curie http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1903/marie-curie-bio.html

[[image:jj-thomson-1-sized.jpg align="left" caption="J.J. Thomson"]]Joseph John Thomson
December 18 1856 – August 30 1940 English 1898 Discovered the electron and created the Plum Pudding Model

J.J. Thomson was born in Cheetham Hill, Manchester on December 18, 1856. In 1870 he went to Owens College, Manchester and in 1876 he enrolled at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1880 he got his BA in mathematics and his MA in 1883. He became the Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics in 1884 at the Trinity College. Then in 1890 he married Rose Elisabeth Paget they had one son and one daughter. In 1906 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for investigations on the conduction of electricity by gases. He was knighted in 1908 and became Master at Trinity College in 1918. He died on 30 August 1940, he was buried in Westminster Abbey.

J.J. Thomson discovered electrons by conducting experiments with cathode rays. He discovered that the cathode rays were made up of tiny particles which are electrons. Thomson imagined the electrons to look as if the were swarming in a sea of positive charge, and this is how the plum pudding model came about. In the plum pudding model it has electrons (plums) surrounded by a soup of positive charge (pudding). In 1906 Thomson was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering the electron.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.J._Thompson http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1906/thomson-bio.html

[[image:bohr.jpg align="left" caption="Bohr"]]Niels Henrik David Bohr
October 7 1885 – November 18 1962 Danish 1913 Stated that electrons moved around the nucleus and created the Bohr model

Niels Bohr was born in Copenhagen, Denmark on October 7, 1885. In 1903 he went to Copenhagen University where he got his Master's degree in Physics in 1909 and Doctor's degree in 1911. In 1911 he stayed at Cambridge where he did some experiments under the guidance of J.J. Thomson. In 1913 he started his own study of the structure of an atom. In 1916 he became the Professor of Theoretical Physics at Copenhagen University. Bohr then died in Copenhagen on November 18, 1962. In 1913 Bohr created the Bohr model, he said that the electrons could only move in orbits and they did not lose energy as they travel. They can only lose or gain energy by jumping from orbit to another. The Bohr model was different from the plum pudding model because it displayed the electrons going around the nucleus in an orbit and not in just a big blob. The orbit that the electrons travel are displayed by lines around the nucleus. In 1922 he was presented the Nobel Prize for his work on the structure of atoms.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohr_model http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1922/bohr-bio.html

[[image:rutherford.jpg align="left" caption="Rutherford"]]Ernest Rutherford
August 30 1871 – October 19 1937 English 1909 Used his gold foil experiment to state that the mass of an atom is in the center Ernest Rutherford was born on August 30, 1871, in Nelson, New Zealand. When Rutherford was 16 he entered Nelson Collegiate School. In 1889 he received a university scholarship and entered the University of New Zealand. In 1851 he became a research student at the Cavendish Laboratory taught by J.J. Thomson. At Cavendish Laboratory he invented a detector for electromagnetic waves and in 1898 he reported the discovery of alpha and beta rays in uranium radiation. He was knighted in 1914 and in 1931 he was named First Baron Rutherford of Nelson, New Zealand. On October 19, 1937 he died and his ashes we buried in the nave of Westminster Abbey. Rutherford completed the gold foil experiment in 1909 which led to the downfall of the plum pudding model. In this experiment they measured the deflection of alpha particles directed into a sheet of thin gold foil. The foil was surrounded by a sheet of Zinc Sulfide. The ZnS sheet would light up when hit with alpha particles. Under the plum pudding model, the alpha particles should all have been deflected by a few degrees. However they observed that very little of them were deflected through angles bigger than 90 degrees. Rutherford found out that the atom contained a small charge that could repel the alpha particles if they were close enough. This then led to the creation of the Bohr model.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Rutherford

[[image:millikan_with_microscope.jpg align="left" caption="Millikan"]]Robert Andrews Millikan
March 22, 1868 – December 19, 1953 American 1908 Discovered the electric charge of an electron

Robert Andrews Millikan was born on March 22, 1868 in Morrison, Illinois. In 1893 he was made Fellow in Physics at Columbia University. Millikan spent a year in Germany, at the Universities of Berlin and Göttingen in 1895. Millikan made many discoveries in the fields of electricity and this became his main study. In World War I, Millikan played a major part in making anti-submarine and meteorological devices. He received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1923. And on December 19, 1953 he died in San Marino, California. His biggest success was the accurate determination of the charge of an electron, using the "falling-drop method". He also proved that this charge was a constant for all electrons in 1910. To do this, he measured the force on charged droplets of oil against gravity between two metal electrodes. By knowing the electric field the charge on the droplet could be determined. The charge that he found was 1.592 × 10 -19 very close to the charge that is recently updated 1.602 176 53(14) x 10 -19. They think that he could have had slight error because of the viscosity of the air.

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1923/millikan-bio.html

[[image:chadwick.jpg align="left" caption="Chadwick"]]James Chadwick
October 20 1891 – July 24 1974 English 1931 Discovered the charge of a neutron

James Chadwick was born in Cheshire, England, on October 20, 1891. He graduated from the Honours School of Physics in 1911 and spent the next two years under the supervision of Rutherford. Then he received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1935. From 1943 to 1946 he worked in the United States as Head of the British Mission attached to the Manhattan Project for the development of the atomic bomb. He went back to England and then in 1948, retired from active physics.

In 1932, Chadwick made a discovery in nuclear science. He proved the existence of neutrons. In contrast with the helium nuclei which are charged, and therefore repelled by electrical forces that are in the nuclei of heavy atoms, this new tool in atomic disintegration doesn’t need to overcome any electric barrier and can penetrate and split the nuclei of the heaviest elements. This helped him out a lot when he was creating the atom bomb. He could also make elements in the laboratory that are heavier than uranium.

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1935/chadwick-bio.html

Werner Heisenberg[[image:heis1.jpg align="right" caption="Heisenberg"]]
December 5 1901 - February 1 1976 German 1927 Discovered the Quantum Theory

Werner Heisenberg was born on December 5, 1901, at Würzburg. Heisenberg went to the Maximilian school at Munich until 1920. After that he went to the University of Munich to study physics. In 1923 he got his Ph.D. at the University of Munich then he became the Assistant to Max Born at the University of Göttingen. In 1927 he was made Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Leipzig. At the end of the World War II he was taken prisoner by American troops and sent to England. Heisenberg died of cancer in his home on February 1, 1976.

His new theory was based only on the things that can be observed of the radiation emitted by the atom. He said, “We cannot always assign to an electron a position in space at a given time, nor follow it in its orbit, so that we cannot assume that the planetary orbits postulated by Niels Bohr actually exist.” Mechanical numbers, such as position, velocity, etc. should be displayed, not by ordinary numbers, but by mathematical structures called "matrices" and he made his new theory in matrix equations. For this he received the Nobel Prize for Physics for 1932.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heisenberg#Matrix_Mechanics_and_the_Nobel_Prize

[[image:schrodinger.jpg align="left" caption="Schrödinger "]]Erwin Schrödinger
August 12 1887 – January 4 1961 Austrian 1926 introduced the Schrödinger Equation

Erwin Schrödinger was born on August 12, 1887, in Vienna. From 1906 - 1910 he was a student at the University of Vienna. During the First World War he served as an artillery officer. In these years Schrödinger mastered all of the Eigen value problems in physics. In 1926 he continued his research and published many papers on a variety of scientific topics. Schrödinger decided he could not continue studying physics in Germany because he disliked Hitler. He became Director of the School for Theoretical Physics from 1933 to his retirement in 1955. After his retirement he returned to Vienna. He died on January 4, 1961 of tuberculosis.

In 1921, he moved to the University of Zürich. In January 1926, Schrödinger published a paper on wave mechanics and what is now the Schrödinger equation. In this paper he gave a wave equation for time independent systems, and he showed that it gave the right energy Eigen values for the atom. This paper created a revolution in quantum mechanics, and all physics and chemistry. Another paper was submitted just a month later that solved the quantum harmonic oscillator and gave a new version of the Schrödinger equation. These papers were some of his greatest achievements in his career and for this he earned the Nobel Prize in 1933.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Schr%C3%B6dinger