Werner Heisenberg

Born 5 December 1901, Heisenberg published his Umdeutung paper in 1925, a full reinterpretation of old quantum theory that he and Max Born and Pascual Jordan elaborated into matrix mechanics the same year. Two years later came the uncertainty principle; five years after that, the 1932 Nobel Prize in Physics. He worked on turbulent flows, ferromagnetism, cosmic rays, subatomic particles, introduced the idea of wave function collapse - and served as a principal scientist in the German nuclear program during World War II. After the war he directed the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics, soon renamed Max Planck Institute, and helped plan West Germany's first research reactors at Karlsruhe and Garching in 1957. He ran the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics until 1970 and held posts across German research councils until his death on 1 February 1976.