Paul Dirac

Paul Dirac
OM FRS
Dirac in 1933
Born
Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac

(1902-08-08)8 August 1902
Bristol, England, UKGBI
Died20 October 1984(1984-10-20) (aged 82)
Tallahassee, Florida, US
Citizenship
  • United Kingdom
  • Switzerland (until 1919)
Education
  • Bishop Road Primary School
  • Merchant Venturers' Technical College
Alma mater
Known for
  • Fermi–Dirac statistics (1926)
  • Work on quantum electrodynamics (1927)
  • Dirac equation (1928)
  • Postulating magnetic monopoles (1931)
  • Dirac large numbers hypothesis (1937)
  • Postulating gravitational waves (1959)
  • Dirac–Born–Infeld action (1962)
  • Dirac membrane (1962)
TitleLucasian Professor of Mathematics (1932–69)
Spouse
Margit Wigner
​
(m. 1937)​
Children4 in total (2 stepchildren, including Gabriel)
RelativesEugene Wigner (brother-in-law)
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
  • University of Cambridge (1927–69)
  • Center for Theoretical Studies, University of Miami (1969–72)
  • Florida State University
    (1970–84)
ThesisQuantum Mechanics (1926)
Doctoral advisorRalph Fowler
Doctoral students
  • C. J. Eliezer (1946)[1]
  • Harish-Chandra (1947)[1]
  • Richard J. Eden (1951)[1]
  • Behram Kurşunoğlu (1952)[2]
  • Dennis Sciama (1953)[1]
  • John Polkinghorne (1955)
Other notable students

Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (/dɪˈræk/ dih-RAK;[3] 8 August 1902 – 20 October 1984) was a British theoretical physicist who is considered to be one of the founders of quantum mechanics.[4][5] Dirac laid the foundations for both quantum electrodynamics and quantum field theory.[6][7][8][9] He was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge and a professor of physics at Florida State University.

Dirac shared the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics with Erwin Schrödinger "for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory".[10]

Dirac graduated from the University of Bristol with a first class honours Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1921, and a first class honours Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics in 1923.[11] Dirac then graduated from St John's College, Cambridge with a PhD in physics in 1926, writing the first ever thesis on quantum mechanics.[12]

Dirac made fundamental contributions to the early development of both quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics, coining the latter term.[8] Among other discoveries, he formulated the Dirac equation in 1928. It connected special relativity and quantum mechanics and predicted the existence of antimatter.[13][14] The Dirac equation is one of the most important results in physics,[6] regarded by some physicists as 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 also contributed greatly to the reconciliation of general relativity with quantum mechanics. He contributed to Fermi–Dirac statistics, which describes the behaviour of fermions, particles with half-integer spin. His 1930 monograph, The Principles of Quantum Mechanics, is one of the most influential texts on the subject.[19]

In 1987, Abdus Salam declared 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."[20] 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".[21] Antonino Zichichi asserted that Dirac had a greater impact on modern physics than Einstein,[15] while Stanley Deser remarked that "We all stand on Dirac's shoulders."[22]

  1. ^ a b c d "Paul Dirac - The Mathematics Genealogy Project". genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu. Retrieved 2 June 2025.
  2. ^ a b "Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac - Physics Tree". academictree.org. Retrieved 5 August 2025.
  3. ^ "DIRAC Definition & Meaning". dictionary.com. Retrieved 2 June 2025.
  4. ^ Simmons, John (1997). The Scientific 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Scientists, Past and Present. Secaucus, New Jersey: Carol Publishing Group. pp. 104–108. ISBN 978-0806517490.
  5. ^ Mukunda, N., Images of Twentieth Century Physics (Bangalore: Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, 2000), p. 9.
  6. ^ a b Berry, Michael (1 February 1998). "Paul Dirac: the purest soul in physics". Physics World. Retrieved 16 October 2023.
  7. ^ Duck, Ian; Sudarshan, E. C. G. (1998). "Chapter 6: Dirac's Invention of Quantum Field Theory". Pauli and the Spin-Statistics Theorem. World Scientific Publishing. pp. 149–167. ISBN 978-9810231149.
  8. ^ a b "Quantum Field Theory > The History of QFT (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)". plato.stanford.edu. Retrieved 22 October 2023.
  9. ^ Bhaumik, Mani L. (2022). "How Dirac's Seminal Contributions Pave the Way for Comprehending Nature's Deeper Designs". Quanta. 8 (1): 88–100. arXiv:2209.03937. doi:10.12743/quanta.v8i1.96. S2CID 212835814.
  10. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1933". The Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 4 April 2013.
  11. ^ Schmitz, Kenneth S. (2018). Physical Chemistry: Multidisciplinary Applications in Society. Elsevier. p. 310. ISBN 978-0-12-800513-2.
  12. ^ Gordin, Michael D. (6 February 2017). "Dr. Strange". American Scientist. Retrieved 29 May 2024.
  13. ^ "PAUL DIRAC, NOBEL LAUREATE; DEVELOPED MODEL OF THE ATOM". The New York Times. 22 October 1984.
  14. ^ a b "Discovering the positron". timeline.web.cern.ch. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  15. ^ a b Zichichi, Antonino (2 March 2000). "Dirac, Einstein and physics". Physics World. Retrieved 22 October 2023.
  16. ^ Dirac, Paul (1931). "Quantised singularities in the electromagnetic field". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Containing Papers of a Mathematical and Physical Character. 133 (821): 60–72. Bibcode:1931RSPSA.133...60D. doi:10.1098/rspa.1931.0130. ISSN 0950-1207.
  17. ^ Gottfried, Kurt (2011). "P. A. M. Dirac and the discovery of quantum mechanics". American Journal of Physics. 79 (3): 2, 10. arXiv:1006.4610. Bibcode:2011AmJPh..79..261G. doi:10.1119/1.3536639. S2CID 18229595.
  18. ^ Kragh, Helge (10 September 2013), "Paul Dirac and The Principles of Quantum Mechanics", Research and Pedagogy: A History of Quantum Physics through Its Textbooks, MPRL – Studies, Berlin: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften, ISBN 978-3-945561-24-9, retrieved 23 October 2023
  19. ^ Brown, Laurie M. (2006). "Paul A. M. Dirac's Principles of Quantum Mechanics" (PDF). Physics in Perspective. 8 (4): 381–407. Bibcode:2006PhP.....8..381B. doi:10.1007/s00016-006-0276-4. S2CID 120303937.
  20. ^ Kursunoglu, Behram N.; Wigner, Eugene P. (1987). Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac: Reminiscences about a Great Physicist. Cambridge University Press. p. 262. ISBN 9780521340137.
  21. ^ "The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius". CERN Courier. 25 August 2009. Retrieved 22 October 2023.
  22. ^ Deser, Stanley (2004). "P.A.M. Dirac and the Development of Modern General Relativity". International Journal of Modern Physics A. 19 (supp01): 99–105. Bibcode:2004IJMPA..19S..99D. doi:10.1142/S0217751X04018622. ISSN 0217-751X.
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