1902-1984

British Physicist and Mathematician

Paul Dirac applied Albert Einstein's (1879-19555) theory of special relativity to quantum mechanics, the mathematical framework describing the motion of atomic particles. In doing this he represented the behavior of the electron by means of wave functions. Dirac's wave mechanics predicted the electron spin and the existence of the positron, an "anti-electron" with the same mass but a positive rather than negative charge. In 1933 he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961).

Dirac was born in Bristol, England, on August 8, 1902. Although his mother was English, his Swiss father, a teacher at his son's school, refused to speak to the boy unless he was addressed in French. Perhaps as a result, Dirac was known for speaking as little as possible. He was good at mathematics, so he decided to study electrical...