Max Born

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Compiled by Amira Abadir (aabadir3) on 12/1/2015

Max Born, 1882-1970

Max Born (1882-1970) was a physicist best known for his study of subatomic particles and contributions to quantum mechanics.

Biography

Max Born was born in Breslau, Germany on December 11th, 1882 to Gustav Born, a professor in anatomy and embryologist, and his wife Margarete.

Scientific Contributions

Quantum Mechanics

In 1926 he published a groundbreaking clarification of the probability density function in Erwin Schrödinger's equation of quantum mechanics. In 1927, with Robert Oppenheimer, he formulated the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, a calculation in quantum chemistry for determining the energy and wave function of an average-size molecule.

Contribution 2

Other Information

Awards

  • While working at the University of Göttingen, Born was awarded the Prize of the Philosophical Faculty in 1906.
  • Born was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1954, along with Walther Bothe.

Fun Facts

  • While Born worked at the University of Frankfurt-on-Main, his assistant was Otto Stern, and the work that Stern started there led to him also earning a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1943.
  • Born has a lunar crater named after him.
  • Born is the maternal grandfather of actress and singer Olivia Newton-John.

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See also

Further reading

Albert Einstein

External links

The Born-Einstein Letters by Albert Einstein and Max Born, 1971

References

  1. NobelPrize.org
  2. NNDB