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Nobel Prize for Physics 1945 |
| In November 1945 Wolfgang Pauli was awarded the Nobel Prize for
Physics for his discovery of the exclusion principle. The event was welcomed
with enthusiasm at Princeton because Pauli was the first active member of the
Institute to receive this highest recognition. His colleagues staged a large
official ceremony to which many prominent persons were invited. The climax was
the concluding speech by Albert Einstein in which
he described Pauli as his intellectual successor. |
Nobel prize celebration in Princeton
© CERN, Geneva |
Nobel prize record
© CERN, Geneva |
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| The award came at a favourable time
for Wolfgang Pauli as it opened up very interesting possibilities for his
further career. He received offers from Princeton and from the Columbia
University in New York. In addition, he was granted American citizenship. |
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Return to Zurich |
Wolfgang Paulis "Maikäferrede" by a meeting of the Nobel Prize upholder in Lindau |
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After all these honours and offers, nobody in Zurich reckoned
seriously with Wolfgang Pauli's return any more. All the more surprised were
his Zurich colleagues and the School Council when Pauli did indeed fulfil his
promise in April 1946 to take up his chair again. It had not been easy for
Pauli to forego the professorship at the Columbia University or at Princeton. A
major role in this decision was apparently played by the increasing influence
of the military over physics research in the USA, of which Pauli disapproved as
a proponent of free science. |
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