Personal Memories of Pauli

DEC 01, 1985

Looking back half a century, a disciple of Wolfgang Pauli recalls how Pauli’s extreme honesty and directness expedited work on fundamental problems in quantum mechanics and made for unusual human relations.

DOI: 10.1063/1.880995

Victor F. Weisskopf

We older disciples of the great Wolfgang Pauli remember with pleasure and nostalgia the prewar years when we had the privilege to work with him. It was one of the most interesting, stimulating and productive periods in physics. At the same time, however, Europe saw events that were among the most terrible and depraved actions of man against man. The coincidence in the history of humankind of the greatest achievements and the worst evils has always impressed and depressed me deeply. As Dickens said: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

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References

1. I have told the story that answers this question before; however, an author is allowed to republish his own results. See V. Weisskopf, Physics in the XX Century, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. (1972), p. 1.
2. W. Pauli, V. F. Weisskopf, Helv. Phys. Acta 7, 709 (1934).https://doi.org/HPACAK

More about the authors

Victor F. Weisskopf, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.