Foreign Membership of the Royal Society: Schrödinger and Heisenberg?

Abstract

Two pioneers of quantum mechanics, Erwin Schrödinger and Werner Heisenberg, were both nominated by Paul Dirac for election to the Royal Society in 1945. At first there was considerable opposition to Heisenberg's election from Max Born, Rudolf Peierls and Francis Simon. These three physicists were all refugees from Germany who had reservations about Heisenberg's activities in World War II. Born gave strong support to Schrödinger's nomination but this was not the case with Peierls and Simon. In time, the opposition became more muted and Schrödinger was elected a Foreign Member in 1949. Heisenberg's subsequent efforts to rebuild science in West Germany and in Europe after the war were welcomed, and he was eventually elected a Foreign Member in 1955.