Paul Dirac

Paul Dirac OM FRS
Dirac in 1933
Born	Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (1902-08-08)8 August 1902 Bristol, England
Died	20 October 1984(1984-10-20) (aged 82) Tallahassee, Florida, U.S.
Nationality	British
Education	University of Bristol University of Cambridge
Known for	One of the founders of quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics See list
Spouse	Margit Wigner ​ (m. 1937)​
Children	2
Awards	Nobel Prize in Physics (1933) Royal Medal (1939) Copley Medal (1952) Max Planck Medal (1952) Fellow of the Royal Society (1930)
Scientific career
Fields	Theoretical physics, mathematical physics
Institutions	University of Cambridge University of Miami Florida State University
Thesis	Quantum Mechanics (1926)
Doctoral advisor	Ralph Fowler
Doctoral students	Homi J. Bhabha[1] Harish-Chandra[2] Dennis Sciama Fred Hoyle[3] Behram Kurşunoğlu[4] John Polkinghorne[5] C. J. Eliezer

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Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac OM FRS^[6] (/dɪˈræk/; 8 August 1902 – 20 October 1984) was an English mathematical and theoretical physicist who is considered to be one of the founders of quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics.^[7][8] He is credited with laying the foundations of quantum field theory.^{[9][10][11][12]} He was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, a professor of physics at Florida State University and the University of Miami, and a 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics recipient.

Dirac graduated from the Universty of Bristol with a first class honours Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1921, and graduated from the University of Cambridge with a PhD in physics in 1926, writing the first ever thesis on quantum mechanics.^[8][13]

Dirac made fundamental contributions to the early development of both quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics, coining the latter term.^[11] Among other discoveries, he formulated the Dirac equation in 1928, which describes the behaviour of fermions and predicted the existence of antimatter,^[14] and is considered one of the most important equations in physics,^[9] with it being considered by some to be the "real seed of modern physics".^[15] He wrote a famous paper in 1931,^[16] which further predicted the existence of antimatter.^[17][18][14] Dirac shared the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics with Erwin Schrödinger "for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory".^[19] He was the youngest ever theoretician to win the prize until T. D. Lee in 1957.^[20] He also made significant contributions to the reconciliation of general relativity with quantum mechanics. His 1930 monograph, The Principles of Quantum Mechanics, is considered to be one of the most influential texts on quantum mechanics.^[21]

Dirac's contributions were not only restricted to quantum mechanics. He contributed to the Tube Alloys project, the British programme to research and construct atomic bombs during World War II.^[22][23] Furthermore, Dirac made fundamental contributions to the process of uranium enrichment and the gas centrifuge,^{[24][25][26][23]} and whose work was deemed to be "probably the most important theoretical result in centrifuge technology".^[27] He also contributed to cosmology, putting forth his large numbers hypothesis.^{[24][28][29][30][31]} Dirac is also seen as having anticipated string theory well before its inception, with his work on the Dirac membrane and Dirac–Born–Infeld action, amongst other contributions.^[32][33]

Dirac was regarded by his friends and colleagues as unusual in character. In a 1926 letter to Paul Ehrenfest, Albert Einstein wrote of a Dirac paper, "I am toiling over Dirac. This balancing on the dizzying path between genius and madness is awful." In another letter concerning the Compton effect he wrote, "I don't understand the details of Dirac at all."^[34] In 1987, Abdus Salam stated that "Dirac was undoubtedly one of the greatest physicists of this or any century . . . No man except Einstein has had such a decisive influence, in so short a time, on the course of physics in this century."^[35] In 1995, Stephen Hawking stated that "Dirac has done more than anyone this century, with the exception of Einstein, to advance physics and change our picture of the universe".^[36] Antonino Zichichi asserted that Dirac had a greater impact on modern physics than Einstein.^[15] Dirac's achievements are considered to be on par with Sir Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell and Einstein.^[37][38][39]