- Born
- Died
- Abraham Pais was born on May 19, 1918 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands. He was married to Ida Nicolaisen, Sara Ector and Lila Lee Atwill. He died on July 28, 2000 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
- SpousesIda Nicolaisen(March 15, 1990 - July 28, 2000) (his death)Sara Ector(May 1976 - 1985) (divorced)Lila Lee Atwill(December 15, 1956 - 1961) (divorced, 1 child)
- A brilliant physics student at the University of Utrecht when the Nazis came to power. The German authorities ordered that the 14th of June, 1941, would be the last day Jews were allowed to get a Ph.D in Holland. Pais determined to get a Ph.D before this date, because he wanted to get out of Holland to study abroad. On June 9, 1941, he earned his degree, making him the last Jew to receive a doctorate degree in wartime Holland.
- Reknowned theoretical physicist and scientific historian. Pais worked with Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Paul Dirac and Richard Feynman, among many others. The relationships he made during his research career gave him a unique perspective from which he wrote many highly acclaimed biographies.
- His dissertation attracted the attention of Niels Bohr, who sent a message inviting him to work with him in Denmark. Pais finally escaped Nazi-occupied Holland in 1946 to do so.
- In 1947, he was a colleague of Albert Einstein at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study. Pais made several important contributions to the theory of particle physics during his time at Princeton.
- Author of a critically acclaimed biography of Einstein, Subtle is the Lord: the Science and Life of Albert Einstein (Oxford University Press, 1982); a definitive history of the study of modern physics, Inward Bound: Of Matter and Forces in the Physical World (Clarendon Press, 1986); the biography Niels Bohr's Times: In Physics, Philosophy and Polity (Clarendon Press, 1991); the book Einstein Lived Here (Clarendon Press, 1995); a biography of Paul Dirac; The Genius of Science: A Portrait Gallery (Oxford University Press, 2000); and other works.
- Scientists are like pickpockets. God has all the secrets in his pockets, and we try to pick them. You make an assumption in science -- and it is an assumption -- that there are fundamental laws you can find out. You have an idea you think can be proved, and you try to prove it. Depending on how it goes, you make a step forward or you make a fool of yourself. Nature doesn't care whether you're right or wrong. Nature is the way it is, and you had better be smart enough to get a glimpse.
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