Wolfgang Pauli, Austrian physicist, 1900-1958

Wolfgang Ernst Pauli was an Austrian theoretical physicist and one of the pioneers of quantum physics. Pauli was instrumental in the development of the modern theory of quantum mechanics. He formulated the Pauli exclusion principle, perhaps his most important work, which stated that no two electrons could exist in the same quantum state. The discovery involved spin theory, which is the basis of a theory of the structure of matter. In 1945, after having been nominated by Albert Einstein, Pauli received the Nobel Prize in Physics. He seldom published papers, preferring lengthy correspondences with colleagues such as Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, with whom he had close friendships.