Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac

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Born: 8 Aug 1902 in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England
Died: 20 Oct 1984 in Tallahassee, Florida, USA

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P A M Dirac is famous as the creator of the complete theoretical formulation of quantum mechanics.

He studied electrical engineering at the University of Bristol before doing research in mathematics at St John's College Cambridge.

His first major contribution to quantum theory was a paper written in 1925. He published The principles of Quantum Mechanics in 1930 and for this work he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1933.

Dirac was appointed Lucasian professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge in 1932, a post he held for 37 years.

He was made a fellow of the Royal Society in 1930, was awarded the Royal Society's Royal Medal in 1939 and the Society awarded him the Copley Medal in 1952.

In 1971 Dirac was appointed professor of physics at Florida State University and was appointed to the Order of Merit in 1973.

Other Web sites:

MIT, USA

References:

1. Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica
2. H Kragh, Dirac: A Scientific Biography (1990).
3. B L Cline, The Questioners: Physicists and the Quantum Theory (1965).
4. B N Kursunoglu and E P Wigner (eds.), Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac : reminiscences about a great physicist (Cambridge, 1987).
5. G C Wick, Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, Atti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei 78 (1985), 181-193
6. J G Taylor (ed.), Tributes to Paul Dirac (Bristol, 1987).
7. Obituary, Yearbook of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Session 1985-86 (1987), 49-51.

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