11 lives in this collection worked in theoretical physics, from 1844 to today. Each has a full course on their life and the mathematics and physics they made.
Often together with: statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics, quantum theory, solid-state physics, mathematical physics, optics, quantum field theory, relativity, thermodynamics. All fields
Founder of statistical mechanics, author of the Boltzmann equation, the H-theorem and the statistical interpretation of entropy, and champion of the atomic theory.
theoretical physics, statistical mechanics, kinetic theory
Founder of the electron theory of matter, author of the Lorentz force and the Lorentz transformation, and 1902 Nobel laureate for the theory of the Zeeman effect.
theoretical physics, electromagnetism, electron theory
Originator of quantum theory, who introduced the quantum of action h in his 1900 derivation of the black-body radiation law.
theoretical physics, thermodynamics, quantum theory
Theoretical physicist who extended Bohr's atom to elliptic and relativistic orbits, introduced the fine-structure constant, founded the quantum free-electron theory of metals, and trained the leading Munich school of theoretical physics.
theoretical physics, mathematical physics, atomic physics
Creator of special and general relativity, of the light-quantum hypothesis and of the theory of Brownian motion, and founder of relativistic cosmology.
theoretical physics, relativity, quantum theory
Austrian-Dutch theoretical physicist, successor of Lorentz at Leiden, known for the urn model, the adiabatic principle, Ehrenfest's theorem and the classification of phase transitions.
statistical mechanics, quantum theory, theoretical physics
Theoretical physicist who co-founded matrix mechanics, gave the wave function its statistical interpretation, and founded the dynamical theory of crystal lattices.
theoretical physics, quantum mechanics, solid-state physics
Dutch-American physicist and chemist who created the Debye model of specific heat, the theory of polar molecules, powder X-ray diffraction and the Debye–Hückel theory of electrolytes, and whose Berlin directorship under the Nazi regime remains disputed.
theoretical physics, physical chemistry, solid-state physics
Discoverer of the exclusion principle, author of the theory of electron spin and the spin–statistics theorem, and proposer of the neutrino.
theoretical physics, quantum mechanics, quantum field theory
Theoretical physicist who founded the Berkeley school of theory, co-authored the Born–Oppenheimer approximation and the first neutron-star and black-hole calculations, and directed the Los Alamos Laboratory.
theoretical physics, quantum mechanics, nuclear physics
Theoretical physicist and first physicist to win the Fields Medal, whose work on supersymmetry, topological field theory and string theory reshaped geometry and topology.
theoretical physics, string theory, quantum field theory