View source for Max Born

{{Short description|German-British theoretical physicist (1882–1970)}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Infobox scientist
| honorific_suffix  = {{post-nominals|size=100%|FRS|FRSE}}
| image             = Max Born.jpg
| caption           = Portrait, 1930s
| birth_date        = {{birth date|df=y|1882|12|11}}
| birth_place       = [[Breslau]], [[Kingdom of Prussia]], [[German Empire]]
| death_date        = {{death date and age|df=y|1970|1|5|1882|12|11}}
| death_place       = [[Göttingen]], [[Lower Saxony]], [[West Germany]]
| resting_place     = [[Stadtfriedhof]], Göttingen
| citizenship       = Germany<br>United Kingdom (1939–1970)
| alma_mater        = [[University of Göttingen]]
| known_for         = {{collapsible list|title={{nobold|''See list''}}|{{ubl|[[Born approximation]]|[[Born coordinates]]|[[Born equation]]|[[Born probability]]|[[Born reciprocity]]|[[Born rigidity]]|[[Born rule]]|[[Born series]]|[[Born–Huang approximation]]|[[Born–Oppenheimer approximation]]|[[Born–von Karman boundary condition]]|[[Born–Haber cycle]]|[[Born–Landé equation]]|[[BBGKY hierarchy]]|[[Born–Infeld model]]|[[Cauchy–Born rule]]|[[Adiabatic theorem]]|[[Canonical commutation relation]]|[[Thermodynamic square]]}}}}
| spouse            = {{marriage|Hedwig Ehrenberg|1913}}
| children          = 3, including [[Gustav Victor Rudolf Born|Gustav]]
| relatives         = [[Olivia Newton-John]] (granddaughter)<br> [[Georgina Born]] (granddaughter)
| awards            = {{ubl|[[List of fellows of the Royal Society elected in 1939|FRS (1939)]]|[[Max Planck Medal]] (1948)|[[Hughes Medal]] (1950)|[[Nobel Prize in Physics]] (1954)}}
| fields            = [[Theoretical physics]]
| work_institutions = {{ubl|[[Goethe University Frankfurt|University of Frankfurt]]|[[University of Göttingen]]|[[University of Edinburgh]]|[[University of Cambridge]]}}
| thesis_title      = {{Tooltip|Untersuchungen über die Stabilität der elastischen Linie in Ebene und Raum unter verschiedenen Grenzbedingungen|Investigations on the stability of the elastic line in plane and space under different boundary conditions}}
| thesis_year       = 1906
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Carl Runge]]
| academic_advisors = {{ubl|[[Woldemar Voigt]]|[[Karl Schwarzschild]]|[[Joseph Larmor]]|[[J. J. Thomson]]}}
| doctoral_students = {{collapsible list|title={{nobold|''See list''}}|{{ubl|[[Mary Bradburn]]|[[Kaijia Cheng]]|[[Max Delbrück]]|[[Walter Elsasser]]|[[Siegfried Flügge]]|[[Herbert S. Green]]|[[Carl Hermann]]|[[Friedrich Hund]]|[[Pascual Jordan]]|[[Edgar Krahn]]|[[Maria Goeppert-Mayer]]|[[Lothar Wolfgang Nordheim]]|[[J. Robert Oppenheimer]]|[[Peng Huanwu|Huanwu Peng]]|[[Maurice Pryce]]|[[Bertha Swirles]]|[[Sheila Tinney]]|[[Victor Frederick Weisskopf]]|[[Liming Yang]]}}
| notable_students  = {{ubl|[[Enrico Fermi]]|[[Huang Kun]]|[[Emil Wolf]]}}}}
| signature         = Max Born signature.svg
}}
'''Max Born''' ({{IPA|de|ˈmaks ˈbɔʁn|lang|De-Max Born.ogg}}; 11 December 1882 – 5 January 1970) was a German-British [[theoretical physicist]] who was instrumental in the development of [[quantum mechanics]]. He also made contributions to [[solid-state physics]] and [[optics]] and supervised the work of a number of notable physicists in the 1920s and 1930s. Born was awarded the 1954 [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] for his "fundamental research in quantum mechanics, especially in the statistical interpretation of the [[wave function]]".<ref name="Nobel Prize"/>

Born entered the [[University of Göttingen]] in 1904, where he met the three renowned mathematicians [[Felix Klein]], [[David Hilbert]], and [[Hermann Minkowski]]. He wrote his [[PhD]] thesis on the subject of the stability of elastic wires and tapes, winning the university's Philosophy Faculty Prize. In 1905, he began researching [[special relativity]] with Minkowski, and subsequently wrote his [[habilitation]] thesis on the [[Thomson model]] of the atom. A chance meeting with [[Fritz Haber]] in Berlin in 1918 led to discussion of how an [[ionic compound]] is formed when a [[metal]] reacts with a [[halogen]], which is today known as the [[Born–Haber cycle]].

In [[World War I]] he was originally placed as a radio  operator, but his specialist knowledge led to his being moved to research duties on [[sound ranging]]. In 1921 Born returned to Göttingen, where he arranged another chair for his long-time friend and colleague [[James Franck]]. Under Born, Göttingen became one of the world's foremost centres for physics. In 1925 Born and [[Werner Heisenberg]] formulated the [[matrix mechanics]] representation of quantum mechanics. The following year, he formulated the now-standard interpretation of the [[probability amplitude|probability density function]] for ψ*ψ in the [[Schrödinger equation]], for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1954. His influence extended far beyond his own research. [[Max Delbrück]], [[Siegfried Flügge]], [[Friedrich Hund]], [[Pascual Jordan]], [[Maria Goeppert-Mayer]], [[Lothar Wolfgang Nordheim]], [[Robert Oppenheimer]], and [[Victor Weisskopf]] all received their PhD degrees under Born at Göttingen, and his assistants included [[Enrico Fermi]], [[Werner Heisenberg]], [[Gerhard Herzberg]], Friedrich Hund, [[Wolfgang Pauli]], [[Léon Rosenfeld]], [[Edward Teller]], and [[Eugene Wigner]].

In January 1933, the [[Nazi Party]] came to power in Germany, and Born, who was [[Jewish]], was suspended from his professorship at the University of Göttingen. He emigrated to<!-- "emigrated to", Google Scholar: 110000, Google Books: 3190000--> the United Kingdom, where he took a job at [[St John's College, Cambridge]], and wrote a popular science book, ''The Restless Universe'', as well as ''Atomic Physics'', which soon became a standard textbook. In October 1936, he became the Tait Professor of [[Natural Philosophy]] at the [[University of Edinburgh]], where, working with German-born assistants E. Walter Kellermann and [[Klaus Fuchs]], he continued his research into physics. Born became a naturalised [[British subject]] on 31 August 1939, one day before [[World War II]] broke out in Europe. He remained in Edinburgh until 1952. He retired to [[Bad Pyrmont]], in [[West Germany]], and died in a hospital in Göttingen on 5 January 1970.<ref name=nbwdis>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=iZtRAAAAIBAJ&pg=5297%2C1066126 |newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |location=(Pennsylvania, U.S.)|agency=Associated Press |title=Nobel prize winner dies |date=6 January 1970 |page=26 }}</ref>

==Early life==
Max Born was born on 11 December 1882 in Breslau (now [[Wrocław]], Poland), which at the time of Born's birth was part of the [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussian]] [[Province of Silesia]] in the [[German Empire]], to a family of [[Jewish]] descent.{{sfn|Born|2002}} He was one of two children born to [[Gustav Jacob Born|Gustav Born]], an [[anatomist]] and [[embryologist]], who was a professor of embryology at the [[University of Breslau]],{{sfn|Kemmer|Schlapp|1971|p=17}} and his wife Margarethe (Gretchen) née Kauffmann, from a Silesian family of industrialists. She died when Max was four years old, on 29 August 1886.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=5–7}} Max had a sister, Käthe, who was born in 1884, and a half-brother, Wolfgang, from his father's second marriage, to Bertha Lipstein. Wolfgang later became Professor of Art History at the [[City College of New York]].{{sfn|Born|2002|p=231}}

Initially educated at the König-Wilhelm-[[Gymnasium (school)|Gymnasium]] in Breslau, Born entered the University of Breslau in 1901. The German university system allowed students to move easily from one university to another, so he spent summer semesters at [[Heidelberg University]] in 1902 and the [[University of Zurich]] in 1903. Fellow students at Breslau, [[Otto Toeplitz]] and [[Ernst Hellinger]], told Born about the [[University of Göttingen]],{{sfn|Kemmer|Schlapp|1971|pp=16–18}} and Born went there in April 1904. At Göttingen he found three renowned mathematicians: [[Felix Klein]], [[David Hilbert]] and [[Hermann Minkowski]]. Very soon after his arrival, Born formed close ties to the latter two men.  From the first class he took with Hilbert, Hilbert identified Born as having exceptional abilities and selected him as the lecture scribe, whose function was to write up the class notes for the students' mathematics reading room at the University of Göttingen. Being class scribe put Born into regular, invaluable contact with Hilbert.  Hilbert became Born's mentor after selecting him to be the first to hold the unpaid, semi-official position of assistant. Born's introduction to Minkowski came through Born's stepmother, Bertha, as she knew Minkowski from dancing classes in [[Königsberg]].  The introduction netted Born invitations to the Minkowski household for Sunday dinners.  In addition, while performing his duties as scribe and assistant, Born often saw Minkowski at Hilbert's house.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=22–28}}<ref>{{citation |url=http://do.nw.schule.de/mbr/schule/maxbornengl.htm |title=Max Born's Life |publisher=Max Born Realschule |access-date=5 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113202504/http://do.nw.schule.de/mbr/schule/maxbornengl.htm |archive-date=13 November 2013  }}</ref>

Born's relationship with Klein was more problematic. Born attended a seminar conducted by Klein and professors of [[applied mathematics]], [[Carl Runge]] and [[Ludwig Prandtl]], on the subject of [[Elasticity of a function|elasticity]]. Although not particularly interested in the subject, Born was obliged to present a paper. He presented one in which, taking the simple case of a curved wire with both ends fixed, he used Hilbert's [[calculus of variations]] to determine the configuration that would minimise [[potential energy]] and therefore be the most stable. Klein was impressed, and invited Born to submit a thesis on the subject of "Stability of Elastica in a Plane and Space" – a subject near and dear to Klein – which Klein had arranged to be the subject for the prestigious annual Philosophy Faculty Prize offered by the university. Entries could also qualify as doctoral dissertations. Born responded by turning down the offer, as applied mathematics was not his preferred area of study. Klein was greatly offended.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=30–31}}{{sfn|Kemmer|Schlapp|1971|pp=18–19}}

Klein had the power to make or break academic careers, so Born felt compelled to atone by submitting an entry for the prize. Because Klein refused to supervise him, Born arranged for Carl Runge to be his supervisor. [[Woldemar Voigt]] and [[Karl Schwarzschild]] became his other examiners. Starting from his paper, Born developed the equations for the stability conditions. As he became more interested in the topic, he had an apparatus constructed that could test his predictions experimentally. On 13 June 1906, the [[Rector (academia)|rector]] announced that Born had won the prize. A month later, he passed his [[oral examination]] and was awarded his [[PhD]] in mathematics ''[[magna cum laude]]''.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=33–36}}

On graduation, Born was obliged to perform his military service, which he had deferred while a student. He found himself drafted into the [[German Army (German Empire)|German army]], and posted to the 2nd Guards Dragoons "Empress Alexandra of Russia", which was stationed in [[Berlin]]. His service was brief, as he was discharged early after an [[asthma]] attack in January 1907. He then travelled to England, where he was admitted to [[Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge]], and studied physics for six months at the [[Cavendish Laboratory]] under [[J. J. Thomson]], [[George Frederick Charles Searle|George Searle]] and [[Joseph Larmor]]. After Born returned to Germany, the Army re-inducted him, and he served with the elite [[1st (Silesian) Life Cuirassiers "Great Elector"]] until he was again medically discharged after just six weeks' service. He then returned to Breslau, where he worked under the supervision of [[Otto Lummer]] and [[Ernst Pringsheim Sr.|Ernst Pringsheim]], hoping to do his [[habilitation]] in physics. A minor accident involving Born's [[black body]] experiment, a ruptured cooling water hose, and a flooded laboratory, led to Lummer telling him that he would never become a physicist.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=36–41}}

In 1905, [[Albert Einstein]] published his paper ''On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies'' about [[special relativity]]. Born was intrigued, and began researching the subject. He was devastated to discover that Minkowski was also researching special relativity along the same lines, but when he wrote to Minkowski about his results, Minkowski asked him to return to Göttingen and do his habilitation there. Born accepted. Toeplitz helped Born brush up on his [[matrix algebra]] so he could work with the four-dimensional [[Minkowski space]] [[Matrix (mathematics)|matrices]] used in the latter's project to reconcile relativity with [[electrodynamics]]. Born and Minkowski got along well, and their work made good progress, but Minkowski died suddenly of [[appendicitis]] on 12 January 1909. The mathematics students had Born speak on their behalf at the funeral.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=42–43}}

A few weeks later, Born attempted to present their results at a meeting of the Göttingen Mathematics Society. He did not get far before he was publicly challenged by Klein and [[Max Abraham]], who rejected relativity, forcing him to terminate the lecture. However, Hilbert and Runge were interested in Born's work, and, after some discussion with Born, they became convinced of the veracity of his results and persuaded him to give the lecture again. This time he was not interrupted, and Voigt offered to sponsor Born's habilitation thesis.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=45–49}} Born subsequently published his talk as an article on "The Theory of the Rigid Electron in the Kinematics of the Principle of Relativity" ({{langx|de|Die Theorie des starren Elektrons in der Kinematik des Relativitätsprinzips}}),<ref name="dietheorie">{{Cite journal | last1 = Born | first1 = M. | title = Die Theorie des starren Elektrons in der Kinematik des Relativitätsprinzips | doi = 10.1002/andp.19093351102 | journal = Annalen der Physik | volume = 335 | issue = 11 | pages = 1–56 | year = 1909 |bibcode = 1909AnP...335....1B | url = https://zenodo.org/record/1424151 }}</ref> which introduced the concept of [[Born rigidity]]. On 23 October Born presented his habilitation lecture on the [[Thomson model]] of the atom.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=45–49}}

==Career==
===Berlin and Frankfurt===
Born settled in as a young academic at Göttingen as a {{lang|de|[[Privatdozent]]}}. In Göttingen, Born stayed at a [[boarding house]] run by Sister Annie at Dahlmannstraße 17, known as El BoKaReBo.  The name was derived from the first letters of the last names of its boarders: "El" for Ella Philipson (a medical student), "Bo" for Born and Hans Bolza (a physics student), "Ka" for [[Theodore von Kármán]] (a {{lang|de|Privatdozent}}), and "Re" for Albrecht Renner (another medical student). A frequent visitor to the boarding house was [[Paul Peter Ewald]], a doctoral student of [[Arnold Sommerfeld]] on loan to Hilbert at Göttingen as a special assistant for physics. [[Richard Courant]], a mathematician and {{lang|de|Privatdozent}}, called these people the "in group".{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=49–55}}

In 1912, Born met Hedwig (Hedi) Ehrenberg, the daughter of a [[Leipzig University]] law professor, and a friend of Carl Runge's daughter [[Iris Runge|Iris]]. She was of Jewish background on her father's side, although he had become a practising [[Lutheran]] when he got married, as did Max's sister Käthe. Despite never practising his religion, Born refused to convert, and his wedding on 2 August 1913 was a garden ceremony. However, he was baptised as a Lutheran in March 1914 by the same pastor who had performed his wedding ceremony. Born regarded "religious professions and churches as a matter of no importance".{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=61–62}} His decision to be baptised was made partly in deference to his wife, and partly due to his desire to assimilate into German society.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=61–62}} The marriage produced three children: two daughters, Irene, born in 1914, and Margarethe (Gritli), born in 1915, and a son, [[Gustav Victor Rudolf Born|Gustav]], born in 1921.{{sfn|Born|2002|p=225}} Through marriage, Born is related to jurists [[Victor Ehrenberg (jurist)|Victor Ehrenberg]], his father-in-law, and [[Rudolf von Jhering]], his wife's maternal grandfather, as well as to philosopher and theologian [[Hans Ehrenberg]], and is a great uncle of British comedian [[Ben Elton]].{{sfn|Born|2002|pp=238–241}}

By the end of 1913, Born had published 27 papers, including important work on relativity and the dynamics of crystal lattices (3 with [[Theodore von Karman]]),{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=56–62}} which became a book.{{sfn|Kemmer|Schlapp|1971|p=20}} In 1914, he received a letter from [[Max Planck]] explaining that a new [[professor extraordinarius]] chair of [[theoretical physics]] had been created at the [[University of Berlin]]. The chair had been offered to [[Max von Laue]], but he had turned it down. Born accepted.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=63–67}} The [[First World War]] was now raging. Soon after  arriving in Berlin in 1915, he enlisted in an Army signals unit. In October, he joined the [[Artillerie Prüfungskommission]], the Army's Berlin-based artillery research and development organisation, under [[Rudolf Ladenburg]], who had established a special unit dedicated to the new technology of [[sound ranging]]. In Berlin, Born formed a lifelong friendship with Einstein, who became a frequent visitor to Born's home.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=70–75}} Within days of [[Armistice with Germany|the armistice]] in November 1918, Planck had the Army release Born. A chance meeting with [[Fritz Haber]] that month led to discussion of the manner in which an [[ionic compound]] is formed when a [[metal]] reacts with a [[halogen]], which is today known as the [[Born–Haber cycle]].{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=83–86}}

Even before Born had taken up the chair in Berlin, von Laue had changed his mind, and decided that he wanted it after all.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=63–67}}  He arranged with Born and the faculties concerned for them to exchange jobs. In April 1919, Born became [[professor ordinarius]] and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics on the science faculty at the [[University of Frankfurt am Main]].{{sfn|Kemmer|Schlapp|1971|p=20}} While there, he was approached by the University of Göttingen, which was looking for a replacement for [[Peter Debye]] as Director of the Physical Institute.{{sfn|Kemmer|Schlapp|1971|p=21}} "Theoretical physics," Einstein advised him, "will flourish wherever ''you'' happen to be; there is no other Born to be found in Germany today."{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|p=96}}  In negotiating for the position with the education ministry, Born arranged for another chair, of experimental physics, at Göttingen for his long-time friend and colleague [[James Franck]].{{sfn|Kemmer|Schlapp|1971|p=21}}

In 1919 [[Elisabeth Bormann]] joined the Institut für Theoretische Physik as his assistant.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Biografien bedeutender österreichischer Wissenschafterinnen: "Die Neugier treibt mich, Fragen zu stellen"|date=2018|first1=Ilse Erika |last1=Korotin |first2=Nastasja |last2=Stupnicki|isbn=978-3-205-20238-7|location=Wien |publisher=Böhlau Verlag |oclc=1038390215}}</ref> She developed the first atomic beams. Working with Born, Bormann was the first to measure the [[Mean free path|free path]] of atoms in gases and the size of molecules.<ref>{{cite web|title=Goethe-Universität — "Historic Site" Plaque for Frankfurt Physics|url=https://www.goethe-university-frankfurt.de/81694072/Historic_Site__Plaque_for_Frankfurt_Physics|access-date=2021-08-03|website=www.goethe-university-frankfurt.de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Toennies|first=J. Peter|title=Serendipitous Meanderings and Adventures with Molecular Beams|date=June 2004|url=http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev.physchem.55.081203.151413|journal=Annual Review of Physical Chemistry|language=en|volume=55|issue=1|pages=1–33|doi=10.1146/annurev.physchem.55.081203.151413|pmid=15117245|bibcode=2004ARPC...55....1T|issn=0066-426X|access-date=4 August 2021|archive-date=3 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210803205238/https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev.physchem.55.081203.151413}}</ref>

===Göttingen===
[[File:Solvay conference 1927.jpg|thumb|left|[[Solvay Conference]], 1927. Born is second from the right in the second row, between [[Louis de Broglie]] and [[Niels Bohr]]. ]]

For the 12 years Born and Franck were at the [[University of Göttingen]] (1921 to 1933), Born had a collaborator with shared views on basic scientific concepts—a benefit for teaching and research. Born's collaborative approach with experimental physicists was similar to that of [[Arnold Sommerfeld]] at the [[University of Munich]], who was ordinarius professor of theoretical physics and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics—also a prime mover in the development of [[Quantum field theory|quantum theory]].  Born and Sommerfeld collaborated with experimental physicists to test and advance their theories. In 1922, when lecturing in the United States at the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]], Sommerfeld sent his student [[Werner Heisenberg]] to be Born's assistant.  Heisenberg returned to Göttingen in 1923, where he completed his habilitation under Born in 1924, and became a {{lang|de|Privatdozent}} at Göttingen.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=113, 120, 123}}{{sfn|Jungnickel|McCormmach|1986|pp=274, 281–285, 350–354}}

In 1919 and 1920, Max Born became displeased about the large number of objections<ref>The Born Einstein Letters, Walker and Company, New York, 1971, page 72</ref> against Einstein's relativity, and gave speeches in the winter of 1919 in support of Einstein. Born received pay for his relativity speeches which helped with expenses through the year of rapid inflation. The speeches in German language became a book published in 1920 of which Einstein received the proofs before publication.<ref>The Born Einstein Letters, Walker and Company, New York, 1971, page 30</ref> A third edition was published in 1922 and an English translation was published in 1924. Born represented light speed as a function of curvature,<ref>Einstein's Theory Of Relativity, Max Born, Dover, New York, 1965, page 357</ref> "the velocity of light is much greater for some directions of the light ray than its ordinary value c, and other bodies can also attain much greater velocities.<ref>Einstein's Theory Of Relativity, Max Born, E. P. Dutton and Company, New York, 1924 page 285</ref>"

In 1925, Born and Heisenberg formulated the [[matrix mechanics]] representation of [[quantum mechanics]]. On 9 July, Heisenberg gave Born a paper entitled ''[[Über quantentheoretische Umdeutung kinematischer und mechanischer Beziehungen]]'' ("Quantum-Theoretical Re-interpretation of Kinematic and Mechanical Relations") to review, and submit for publication. In the paper, Heisenberg formulated quantum theory, avoiding the concrete, but unobservable, representations of electron orbits by using parameters such as transition probabilities for quantum jumps, which necessitated using two indexes corresponding to the initial and final states.{{sfn|Heisenberg|1925|pages=879–893}}{{sfn|Segrè|1980|pp=153–157}} When Born read the paper, he recognized the formulation as one which could be transcribed and extended to the systematic language of matrices,{{sfn|Pais|1991|pp=275–279}} which he had learned from his study under Jakob Rosanes at [[Breslau University]].<ref name=Born1954>{{cite web |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1954/born-lecture.pdf |title=The Statistical Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics—Nobel Lecture |year=1954 |first=Max |last=Born |publisher=Official Web Site of the Nobel Prize |access-date=9 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019194414/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1954/born-lecture.pdf |archive-date=19 October 2012 }}</ref>

Up until this time, matrices were seldom used by physicists; they were considered to belong to the realm of [[pure mathematics]]. [[Gustav Mie]] had used them in a paper on electrodynamics in 1912, and Born had used them in his work on the lattices theory of crystals in 1921.  While matrices were used in these cases, the algebra of matrices with their multiplication did not enter the picture as they did in the matrix formulation of quantum mechanics.{{sfn|Jammer|1966|pp=206–207}} With the help of his assistant and former student [[Pascual Jordan]], Born began immediately to make a transcription and extension, and they submitted their results for publication; the paper was received for publication just 60 days after Heisenberg's paper.{{sfn|Born|Jordan|1925}} A follow-on paper was submitted for publication before the end of the year by all three authors.{{sfn|Born|Heisenberg|Jordan|1925|pp=557–615}} The result was a surprising formulation:

:<math> p q - q p =  { h \over 2 \pi i } I </math>

where ''p'' and ''q'' were matrices for location and [[momentum]], and ''I'' is the [[identity matrix]]. The left hand side of the equation is not zero because [[matrix multiplication]] is not [[commutative]].<ref name=Born1954/> This formulation was entirely attributable to Born, who also established that all the elements not on the diagonal of the matrix were zero. Born considered that his paper with Jordan contained "the most important principles of quantum mechanics including its [[quantum electrodynamics|extension to electrodynamics]]."<ref name=Born1954/> The paper put Heisenberg's approach on a solid mathematical basis.{{sfn|Kemmer|Schlapp|1971|p=35}}

Born was surprised to discover that [[Paul Dirac]] had been thinking along the same lines as Heisenberg. Soon, [[Wolfgang Pauli]] used the matrix method to calculate the energy values of the hydrogen atom and found that they agreed with the [[Bohr model]]. Another important contribution was made by [[Erwin Schrödinger]], who looked at the problem using [[wave|wave mechanics]]. This had a great deal of appeal to many at the time, as it offered the possibility of returning to deterministic classical physics. Born would have none of this, as it ran counter to facts determined by experiment.<ref name=Born1954/> He formulated the now-standard interpretation of the [[probability amplitude|probability density function]] for ψ*ψ in the [[Schrödinger equation]], which he published in July 1926.{{sfn|Born|1926|pp=863–867}}{{sfn|Kemmer|Schlapp|1971|p=35}}

In a letter to Born on 4 December 1926, Einstein made his famous remark regarding quantum mechanics: {{quote|Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the 'old one'. I, at any rate, am convinced that ''He'' is not playing at dice.{{sfn|Born|Born|Einstein|1971|p=91}} }}
This quotation is often paraphrased as '[[God does not play dice]]'.{{sfn|Born|1969|p=113}}

In 1928, Einstein nominated Heisenberg, Born, and Jordan for the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]],{{sfn|Bernstein|2005|p=1004}}{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|p=190}} but Heisenberg alone won the 1932 Prize "for the creation of quantum mechanics, the application of which has led to the discovery of the allotropic forms of hydrogen",<ref name="nobelprize.org">{{cite web |title=Nobel Prize in Physics 1933 |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1933/press.html |access-date=9 March 2013 }}</ref> while Schrödinger and Dirac shared the 1933 Prize "for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory".<ref name="nobelprize.org"/> On 25 November 1933, Born received a letter from Heisenberg in which he said he had been delayed in writing due to a "bad conscience" that he alone had received the Prize "for work done in Göttingen in collaboration—you, Jordan and I."{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|p=191}}  Heisenberg went on to say that Born and Jordan's contribution to quantum mechanics cannot be changed by "a wrong decision from the outside."{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|p=191}} In 1954, Heisenberg wrote an article honouring Planck for his insight in 1900, in which he credited Born and Jordan for the final mathematical formulation of matrix mechanics and Heisenberg went on to stress how great their contributions were to quantum mechanics, which were not "adequately acknowledged in the public eye."{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=285–286}}

Those who received their PhD degrees under Born at Göttingen included [[Max Delbrück]], [[Siegfried Flügge]], [[Friedrich Hund]], [[Pascual Jordan]], [[Maria Goeppert-Mayer]], [[Lothar Wolfgang Nordheim]], [[Robert Oppenheimer]], and [[Victor Weisskopf]].<ref name="mathgene">{{MathGenealogy|id=18245}}</ref>{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=142, 262}}  Born's assistants at the University of Göttingen's Institute for Theoretical Physics included [[Enrico Fermi]], Werner Heisenberg, [[Gerhard Herzberg]], Friedrich Hund, Pascual Jordan, Wolfgang Pauli, [[Léon Rosenfeld]], [[Edward Teller]], and [[Eugene Wigner]].{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=178, 262}} [[Walter Heitler]]  became an assistant to Born in 1928, and completed his habilitation under him in 1929. Born not only recognised talent to work with him, but he "let his superstars stretch past him; to those less gifted, he patiently handed out respectable but doable assignments."{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|p=143}} Delbrück, and Goeppert-Mayer went on to be awarded Nobel Prizes.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1969/delbruck.html |title=Max Delbrück – Biography|publisher=The Official Web Site of the Nobel Prize|access-date=10 March 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/educational/nobelprize_info/goeppert-mayer-edu.html |title=Maria Goeppert-Mayer – Biography|publisher=The Official Web Site of the Nobel Prize|access-date=10 March 2013 }}</ref>

==Later life==
In January 1933, the [[Nazi Party]] came to power in Germany. In May, Born became one of six Jewish professors at Göttingen who were suspended with pay; Franck had already resigned. In twelve years they had built Göttingen into one of the world's foremost centres for physics.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=174–177}} Born began looking for a new job, writing to Maria Göppert-Mayer at [[Johns Hopkins University]] and Rudi Ladenburg at [[Princeton University]]. He accepted an offer from [[St John's College, Cambridge]].{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=180–184}} At Cambridge, he wrote a popular science book, ''The Restless Universe'', and a textbook, ''Atomic Physics'', that soon became a standard text, going through seven editions. His family soon settled into life in England, with his daughters Irene and Gritli becoming engaged to Welshman Brinley (Bryn) Newton-John and Englishman [[Maurice Pryce]] respectively.  Born's granddaughter [[Olivia Newton-John]] was the daughter of Irene.<ref name=sdcohlrts>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zlVOAAAAIBAJ&pg=6791%2C3415413|newspaper=Spokane Daily Chronicle |location=(Washington, U.S.) |agency=Associated Press |title=Olivia had long road to stardom |date=15 April 1976 |page=19 }}</ref>{{sfn|Kemmer|Schlapp|1971|p=22}}{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=200–201}}
[[File:Max Born 1937.jpg|thumb|left|Max and Hedi Born in Indian clothes, Bangalore, India, {{circa|1937}}]]
Born's position at Cambridge was only a temporary one, and his tenure at Göttingen was terminated in May 1935. He therefore accepted an offer from [[C. V. Raman]] to go to [[Bangalore]] in 1935.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|p=199}} Born considered taking a permanent position there, but the [[Indian Institute of Science]] did not create an additional chair for him.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=205–208}} In November 1935, the Born family had their German citizenship revoked, rendering them [[Statelessness|stateless]]. A few weeks later Göttingen cancelled Born's doctorate.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|p=224}} Born considered an offer from [[Pyotr Kapitsa]] in Moscow, and started taking Russian lessons from [[Rudolf Peierls]]'s Russian-born wife Genia. But then [[Charles Galton Darwin]] asked Born if he would consider becoming his successor as Tait Professor of [[Natural Philosophy]] at the [[University of Edinburgh]], an offer that Born promptly accepted,{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=210–211}} assuming the chair in October 1936.{{sfn|Kemmer|Schlapp|1971|p=22}}

In Edinburgh, Born promoted the teaching of [[mathematical physics]]. He had two German assistants, E. Walter Kellermann and [[Klaus Fuchs]], and one Scottish assistant, [[Robert Schlapp]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Obits2/Schlapp_RSE_Obituary.html |title=Robert Schlapp M.A.(Edin.), Ph.D.(Cantab.) |first=Nicholas |last=Kemmer |author-link=Nicholas Kemmer |access-date=25 May 2018}}</ref> and together they continued to investigate the mysterious behaviour of [[electron]]s.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=218–220}} Born became a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]] in 1937, and of the [[Royal Society of London]] in March 1939. During 1939, he got as many of his remaining friends and relatives still in Germany as he could out of the country, including his sister Käthe, in-laws Kurt and Marga, and the daughters of his friend Heinrich Rausch von Traubenberg. Hedi ran a domestic bureau, placing young Jewish women in jobs. Born received his certificate of naturalisation as a [[British subject]] on 31 August 1939, one day before the [[Second World War]] broke out in Europe.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=225–226}}
[[File:Grave of Max Born at Stadtfriedhof Göttingen 2017 01.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Born's gravestone in Göttingen is inscribed with the canonical commutation relation, which he put on rigorous mathematical footing.]]
Born remained at Edinburgh until he reached the retirement age of 70 in 1952. He retired to [[Bad Pyrmont]], in [[West Germany]], in 1954.{{sfn|Kemmer|Schlapp|1971|pp=23–24}} In October, he received word that he was being awarded the Nobel Prize. His fellow physicists had never stopped nominating him. Franck and Fermi had nominated him in 1947 and 1948 for his work on crystal lattices, and over the years, he had also been nominated for his work on solid state physics, quantum mechanics and other topics.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|p=299}} In 1954, he received the prize for "fundamental research in Quantum Mechanics, especially in the statistical interpretation of the wave function"<ref name="Nobel Prize">{{cite web |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1954/ |title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 1954 |publisher=The Official Web Site of the Nobel Prize|access-date=10 March 2013 }}</ref>—something that he had worked on alone.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|p=299}} In his Nobel lecture he reflected on the philosophical implications of his work:{{quote|I believe that ideas such as absolute certitude, absolute exactness, final truth, etc. are figments of the imagination which should not be admissible in any field of science. On the other hand, any assertion of probability is either right or wrong from the standpoint of the theory on which it is based. This loosening of thinking (''Lockerung des Denkens'') seems to me to be the greatest blessing which modern science has given to us. For the belief in a single truth and in being the possessor thereof is the root cause of all evil in the world.{{sfn|Born|2002|p=261}} }}

In retirement, he continued scientific work, and produced new editions of his books. In 1955 he became one of signatories to the [[Russell-Einstein Manifesto]]. He died at age 87 in hospital in Göttingen on 5 January 1970,<ref name=nbwdis/> and is buried in the ''[[Stadtfriedhof]]'' there, in the same cemetery as [[Walther Nernst]], [[Wilhelm Eduard Weber|Wilhelm Weber]], [[Max von Laue]], [[Otto Hahn]], [[Max Planck]], and [[David Hilbert]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://librairie.immateriel.fr/fr/read_book/9780596523206/ch22 |title=Stadtfriedhof, Göttingen, Germany |publisher=Librairie Immateriel |access-date=10 March 2013 }}</ref>

== Global policy ==
He was one of the signatories of the agreement to convene a convention for drafting a [[world constitution]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Letters from Thane Read asking Helen Keller to sign the World Constitution for world peace. 1961 |url=https://www.afb.org/HelenKellerArchive?a=d&d=A-HK01-07-B149-F04-022.1.8 |access-date=2023-07-01 |website=Helen Keller Archive |publisher=American Foundation for the Blind}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Letter from World Constitution Coordinating Committee to Helen, enclosing current materials |url=https://www.afb.org/HelenKellerArchive?a=d&d=A-HK01-07-B154-F05-028.1.6 |access-date=2023-07-03 |website=Helen Keller Archive |publisher=American Foundation for the Blind}}</ref> As a result, for the first time in human history, a [[World Constituent Assembly]] convened to draft and adopt a [[Constitution for the Federation of Earth]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Preparing earth constitution {{!}} Global Strategies & Solutions {{!}} The Encyclopedia of World Problems |url=http://encyclopedia.uia.org/en/strategy/193465 |access-date=2023-07-15 |website=The Encyclopedia of World Problems {{!}} Union of International Associations (UIA)}}</ref>

== Personal life ==
Born's wife Hedwig (Hedi) Martha Ehrenberg (1891–1972) was a daughter of the jurist [[Victor Ehrenberg (jurist)|Victor Ehrenberg]] and Elise von Jhering (a daughter of the jurist [[Rudolf von Jhering]]). Born was survived by his wife Hedi and their children Irene, Gritli and [[Gustav Victor Rudolf Born|Gustav]].{{sfn|Kemmer|Schlapp|1971|pp=23–24}} Singer and actress [[Olivia Newton-John]] was a daughter of Irene (1914–2003), while Gustav is the father of musician and academic [[Georgina Born]] and actor Max Born (''[[Fellini Satyricon]]'') who are thus also Max's grandchildren. His great-grandchildren include songwriter [[Brett Goldsmith]], singer [[Tottie Goldsmith]], racing car driver [[Emerson Newton-John]],<ref>{{cite news|last=McMahon|first=Neil|title=Mother, model was much more than 'Olivia's older sister'|url=http://www.smh.com.au/national/mother-model-was-much-more-than-olivias-older-sister-20130525-2n460.html|newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]|date=25 May 2013 |access-date=20 June 2015}}</ref> and singer [[Chloe Rose Lattanzi]].<ref>{{cite news|title=People In The News - Baby Chloe is a first for Newton-John, Lattanzi|author=Sentinel Wire Services|newspaper=[[The Milwaukee Sentinel]]|publisher=Newspapers, Inc.|location=Milwaukee, Wisconsin|date=January 18, 1986}}</ref> Born helped his nephew, architect, [[Otto Königsberger]] (1908–1999) obtain commission in the Mysore State.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Lee|first=Rachel|date=2012|title=Constructing a Shared Vision: Otto Koenigsberger and Tata & Sons|journal=ABE Journal|volume=2 |issue=2|doi=10.4000/abe.356|issn=2275-6639|doi-access=free}}</ref>

==Awards and honors==
* 1934 – [[Stokes Medal]] of Cambridge<ref name="Born Biographic Data">{{Cite web|url=https://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/biogs/P000246b.htm|title=Born, Max - Bright Sparcs Biographical entry|first=The University of Melbourne eScholarship Research|last=Centre|website=www.asap.unimelb.edu.au}}</ref>
* 1939 – [[Fellow of the Royal Society]]<ref name="Born Biographic Data"/>{{sfn|Kemmer|Schlapp|1971}}
* 1945 – [[Makdougall–Brisbane Prize]] of the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]]<ref>The award was presented for research on quantum mechanics of fields and shared with Born's collaborator H. W. Peng. See Greenspan, 2005, p. 257 and [http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/biogs/P000246b.htm Born Biographic Data].</ref>
* 1945 – [[Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize]] of the Royal Society of Edinburgh<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=IEhAAAAAIBAJ&pg=3924%2C129473|title= Royal Society of Edinburgh. Awards to Professors |work=[[The Glasgow Herald]] |date=2 May 1950 |page=3 |access-date=1 May 2018}}</ref>
* 1948 – [[Max-Planck Medal|Max Planck Medaille]] der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft<ref name="Born Biographic Data"/>
* 1950 – [[Hughes Medal]] of the [[Royal Society of London]]<ref name="Born Biographic Data"/>
* 1953 – Honorary citizen of the town of Göttingen<ref name="Born Biographic Data"/>
* 1954 – [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] The award was for Born's fundamental research in quantum mechanics, especially for his statistical interpretation of the wavefunction.<ref name="Born Biographic Data"/>
** 1954 – Nobel Prize Banquet Speech<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1954/born/speech/|title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 1954|website=NobelPrize.org}}</ref>
** 1954 – Born Nobel Prize Lecture<ref>{{cite web |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1954/born-lecture.pdf |title=Born Nobel Prize Lecture |access-date=22 November 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061231144002/http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1954/born-lecture.pdf |archive-date=31 December 2006 }}</ref>
* 1956 – [[Hugo Grotius]] Medal for International Law, Munich<ref name="Born Biographic Data"/>
* 1959 – [[Bundesverdienstkreuz|Grand Cross of Merit with Star of the Order of Merit of the German Federal Republic]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1954/born/biographical/|title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 1954|website=NobelPrize.org}}</ref>
* 1972 – [[Max Born Medal and Prize]] was created by the [[German Physical Society]] and the British [[Institute of Physics]]. It is awarded annually.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.iop.org/about/awards/bilateral/born/page_38469.html |title=The Born medal and prize |publisher=[[Institute of Physics]] |access-date=30 August 2011 |archive-date=8 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200308002210/http://www.iop.org/about/awards/bilateral/born/page_38469.html }}</ref><ref name="DPG_Born_Prize">{{cite web |url=http://www.dpg-physik.de/preise/preistraeger_mb.html |title=Max-Born-Preis |language=de |trans-title=Max Born Prize |publisher=[[German Physical Society]] |access-date=30 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110813233420/http://www.dpg-physik.de/preise/preistraeger_mb.html |archive-date=13 August 2011 }}</ref>
* 1982 – Ceremony at the [[University of Göttingen]] in the 100th Birth Year of Max Born and James Franck, Institute Directors 1921–1933.<ref>''James Franck und Max Born in Göttingen: Reden zur akademischen Feier aus Anlass der 100. Wiederkehr ihres Geburtsjahres.'' (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1983).  Speeches by Norbert Kamp, Peter Haasen, Gerhart W. Rathenau, and [[Friedrich Hund]]. Franck was Director of the Second Institute for Experimental Physics at Göttingen, while Born was Director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics.</ref>
* 1991 – {{ill|Max-Born-Institut für Nichtlineare Optik und Kurzzeitspektroskopie|de}} – Institute named in his honor.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mbi-berlin.de/en/general/development/index.html |title=Max-Born-Institute for Nonlinear Optics and Short Pulse Spectroskopy – {{sic|Develo|pement|nolink=y}} of the MBI |access-date=10 March 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006204009/http://www.mbi-berlin.de/en/general/development/index.html |archive-date=6 October 2014 }}</ref>
* 2017 – On 11 December 2017, Google showed a Google doodle, designed by Kati Szilagyi, in honouring the 135th birth anniversary of Born.<ref name="Scroll.in 2017">{{cite web | title=Who is Max Born? Google doodle honours physicist for his contributions to quantum mechanics | website=Scroll.in | date=11 December 2017 | url=https://scroll.in/latest/861039/google-celebrates-135th-birth-anniversary-of-german-physicist-max-born | access-date=11 December 2017}}</ref>

==Bibliography==
[[File:Born, Max – Einstein's theory of relativity (Die Relativitätstheorie Einsteins und ihre physikalischen Grundlagen), 1922 – BEIC 10969245.jpg|thumb|''Einstein's theory of relativity'', 1922 (US edition of ''Die Relativitätstheorie Einsteins und ihre physikalischen Grundlagen'', 1920)]]

{{main|Bibliography of Max Born}}
During his life, Born wrote several semi-popular and technical books. His volumes on topics like [[atomic physics]] and [[optics]] were very well received. They are considered classics in their fields, and are still in print. The following is a chronological listing of his major works:

*''Über das Thomson'sche Atommodell'' [[Habilitation|Habilitations-Vortrag]] (FAM, 1909) – The Habilitation was done at the University of Göttingen, on 23 October 1909.<ref>Greenspan, 2005, pp. 49, 51, and 353.</ref>
*{{cite book |title=''Die Relativitätstheorie Einsteins und ihre physikalischen Grundlagen''|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=3936972|location=Berlin|publisher=Springer|language=de|year=1920}} – Based on Born's lectures at the University of Frankfurt am Main.<ref>Greenspan, 2005, p. 100.</ref>
**Available in English under the title {{cite book |title=''Einstein's theory of relativity''|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=10969245|location=New York|publisher=Dutton|language=en|year=1922}}.
*''Dynamik der Kristallgitter'' (Teubner, 1915)<ref name="Greenspan, 2005, p. 352">Greenspan, 2005, p. 352.</ref> – After its publication, the physicist Arnold Sommerfeld asked Born to write an article based on it for the 5th volume of the ''Mathematical Encyclopedia''. The First World War delayed the start of work on this article, but it was taken up in 1919 and finished in 1922.  It was published as a revised edition under the title ''Atomic Theory of Solid States''.<ref>Greenspan, 2005, pp. 66, 110, and 115.</ref>
*''Vorlesungen über Atommechanik'' (Springer, 1925)<ref name="Greenspan, 2005, p. 352"/>
*''Problems of Atomic Dynamics'' (MIT Press, 1926) – A first account of matrix mechanics being developed in Germany, based on two series of lectures given at [[MIT]], over three months, in late 1925 and early 1926.<ref>Greenspan, 2005, p. 132.</ref><ref>''Problems of Atomic Dynamics'' is available from MIT Press, {{ISBN|0-262-52019-2}}, and Dover Publications, {{ISBN|0-486-43873-2}}.</ref>
*''Mechanics of the Atom'' (George Bell & Sons, 1927) – Translated by J. W. Fisher and revised by [[D. R. Hartree]].<ref>[http://libserv.aip.org:81/ipac20/ipac.jsp?uri=full=3100001~!16749~!0&profile=newcustom-aipnbl#focus AIP Niels Bohr Library] and [http://www.abebooks.com AbeBooks]: Search on ''Mechanics of the Atom''.</ref>
* ''Elementare Quantenmechanik (Zweiter Band der Vorlesungen über Atommechanik)'', with Pascual Jordan. (Springer, 1930) – This was the first volume of what was intended as a two-volume work. This volume was limited to the work Born did with Jordan on matrix mechanics.  The second volume was to deal with Erwin Schrödinger's wave mechanics.  However, the second volume was not even started by Born, as he believed his friend and colleague Hermann Weyl had written it before he could do so.<ref>Greenspan, 2005, pp.&nbsp;159–160.</ref><ref>Jungnickel, Volume 2, 1990, p. 378.</ref>
*''Optik: Ein Lehrbuch der elektromagnetische Lichttheorie'' (Springer, 1933) – The book was released just as the Borns were emigrating to England.
*''Moderne Physik'' (1933) – Based on seven lectures given at the Technischen Hochschule Berlin.<ref name="Greenspan, 2005, p. 201">Greenspan, 2005, p. 201.</ref>
*''Atomic Physics'' (Blackie, London, 1935) – Authorized translation of ''Moderne Physik'' by [[John Dougall (mathematician)|John Dougall]], with updates.<ref>The eighth edition was published in 1969, including revisions by R. J. Blin-Stoyle & J. M. Radcliffe.  The 8th edition of ''Atomic Physics'' is available from Dover Publications in paper cover, {{ISBN|0-486-65984-4}}.</ref>
*''The Restless Universe''<ref>''The Restless Universe'' was last published by Dover Publications, 1951, {{ISBN|0-486-20412-X}}, but it is no longer in print.</ref> (Blackie and Son Limited, 1935) – A popularised rendition of the workshop of nature, translated by [[Winifred Margaret Deans]]. Born's nephew, [[Otto Königsberger]], whose successful career as an architect in Berlin was brought to an end when the Nazis took over, was temporarily brought to England to illustrate the book.<ref name="Greenspan, 2005, p. 201"/>
*''Experiment and Theory in Physics'' (Cambridge University Press, 1943) – The address given King's College, [[Newcastle upon Tyne]], at the request of the Durham Philosophical Society and the Pure Science Society.  An expanded version of the lecture appeared in a 1956 Dover Publications edition.<ref>Greenspan, 2005, 245–246</ref>
*[https://archive.org/details/naturalphilosoph032159mbp ''Natural Philosophy of Cause and Chance''] (Oxford University Press, 1949) – Based on Born's 1948 Waynflete lectures, given at the College of St. Mary Magdalen, Oxford University.  A later edition (Dover, 1964)  included two appendices: "Symbol and Reality" and Born's lecture given at the Nobel laureates 1964 meeting in Landau, Germany.<ref>[http://www.mala.bc.ca/~mcneil/cit/citlcborn1.htm Citations for Max Born Based on the Library of Congress] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930154529/http://www.mala.bc.ca/~mcneil/cit/citlcborn1.htm |date=30 September 2007 }} – See the entry for Natural Philosophy of Cause and Chance.  Also see Greenspan, 2005, p. 352.</ref>
*''A General Kinetic Theory of Liquids'' with H. S. Green (Cambridge University Press, 1949) – The six papers in this book were reproduced with permission from the ''[[Proceedings of the Royal Society]]''.
*''Natural Philosophy Of Cause And Chance'', Oxford 1949
*''[[Dynamical Theory of Crystal Lattices]]'', with [[Kun Huang]]. (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1954)<ref>A new edition of ''Dynamical Theory of Crystal Lattices '' is available from [[Oxford University Press]] in hard cover {{ISBN|978-0-19-850369-9}} and in soft cover {{ISBN|0-19-850369-5}}.</ref>
* Max Born ''The statistical interpretation of quantum mechanics''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20061231144002/http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1954/born-lecture.pdf Nobel Lecture] – 11 December 1954.
*''Physics in My Generation: A Selection of Papers'' (Pergamon, 1956)<ref>''Physics in My Generation'' (Springer, 1969), {{ISBN|0-387-90008-X}}.</ref>
*''Physik im Wandel meiner Zeit'' (Vieweg, 1957)
*''[[Principles of Optics|Principles of Optics: Electromagnetic Theory of Propagation, Interference and Diffraction of Light]]'',<ref>''[[Principles of Optics]]'' is now in its 7th revised printing, {{ISBN|0-521-64222-1}}.  The first 5 revised editions were done by Pergamon Press (1959–1975).  The last 2 were done by Cambridge University Press in 1980 and 1999.</ref> with [[Emil Wolf]]. (Pergamon, 1959) – This book is not an English translation of ''Optik'', but rather a substantially new book. Shortly after World War II, a number of scientists suggested that Born update and translate his work into English.  Since there had been many advances in optics in the intervening years, updating was warranted. In 1951, Wolf began as Born's private assistant on the book; it was eventually published in 1959 by [[Robert Maxwell]]'s Pergamon Press.<ref>[[Paul Rosbaud]], a former editor at Springer who remained in Germany during World War II and spied for the allies, was initially involved with Born and the endeavor to publish ''Optik'' in English, as Rosbaud was organizing a publishing company in England after the war.  The publishing company did not materialize, and Rosbaud eventually joined Pergamon Press. (Greenspan, 2005, pp.&nbsp;292–294.)</ref> – the delay being due to the lengthy time needed  "to resolve all the financial and publishing tricks created by Maxwell."<ref>Greenspan, 2005, pp. 174, 292–294.</ref>
*''Physik und Politik'' (VandenHoeck und Ruprecht, 1960)
*''Zur Begründung der Matrizenmechanik'', with Werner Heisenberg and Pascual Jordan (Battenberg, 1962) – Published in honor of Max Born's 80th birthday.  This edition reprinted the authors' articles on matrix mechanics published in ''Zeitschrift für Physik'', Volumes '''26''' and '''33'''–'''35''', 1924–1926.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://libserv.aip.org:81/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=11C35BG761245.424&menu=search&aspect=subtab129&npp=10&ipp=20&spp=20&profile=newcustom-aipnbl&ri=2&source=%7E%21horizon&index=.GW&term=Matrizenmechanik&aspect=subtab129&x=12&y=10#focus|title=AIP Niels Bohr Library}}</ref>
*''My Life and My Views: A Nobel Prize Winner in Physics Writes Provocatively on a Wide Range of Subjects'' (Scribner, 1968) – Part II (pp.&nbsp;63–206) is a translation of ''Von der Verantwortung des Naturwissenschaftlers''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://libserv.aip.org:81/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=11C35BG761245.424&menu=search&aspect=subtab129&npp=10&ipp=20&spp=20&profile=newcustom-aipnbl&ri=4&source=%7E%21horizon&index=.GW&term=My+Life+My+Views&aspect=subtab129#focus|title=AIP Niels Bohr Library}}</ref>
*''Briefwechsel 1916–1955, kommentiert von Max Born'' with Hedwig Born and Albert Einstein (Nymphenburger, 1969)
*''The Born–Einstein Letters: Correspondence between Albert Einstein and Max and Hedwig Born from 1916–1955, with commentaries by Max Born'' (Macmillan, 1971).<ref>''The Born–Einstein Letters'', [[Macmillan Publishers]], 2004, {{ISBN|1-4039-4496-2}}.</ref>
*''Mein Leben: Die Erinnerungen des Nobelpreisträgers'' (Munich: Nymphenburger, 1975).  Born's published memoirs.
*''My Life: Recollections of a Nobel Laureate'' (Scribner, 1978).<ref>''My Life: Recollections of a Nobel Laureate'' was also published by Taylor and Francis/Charles Scribner's Sons, {{ISBN|0-85066-174-9}}.  No longer in print.</ref> Translation of ''Mein Leben.''

For a full list of his published papers, see [http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/histcomp/born-m_auth/index-so-2.html HistCite] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190226050320/http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/histcomp/born-m_auth/index-so-2.html |date=26 February 2019 }}. For his published works, see [https://web.archive.org/web/20070210134906/http://bibliothek.bbaw.de/kataloge/literaturnachweise/born/literatur.pdf Published Works – Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften Akademiebibliothek].

==See also==
* [[List of things named after Max Born]]
*[[List of refugees]]
*[[List of Jewish Nobel laureates]]

== Citations ==
{{reflist|30em}}

== General references ==
* {{cite journal |last=Bernstein |first=Jeremy |author-link=Jeremy Bernstein |title=Max Born and the Quantum Theory|journal=American Journal of Physics |volume=73 |issue=11 |pages=999–1008 |year=2005|bibcode = 2005AmJPh..73..999B |doi = 10.1119/1.2060717 |doi-access=free }} Reprinted as chapter 7 in Bernstein, Jeremy (2014). ''A Chorus of Bells and Other Scientific Inquiries''.
* {{cite journal |last1=Born |first1=M. |first2=W. |last2=Heisenberg |author-link2=Werner Heisenberg |first3=P. |last3=Jordan |author-link3=Pascual Jordan |title=Zur Quantenmechanik II |journal=Zeitschrift für Physik|volume=35|issue=557–615|page=557 |year=1925|doi=10.1007/BF01379806|bibcode = 1926ZPhy...35..557B |s2cid=186237037 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Born |first1=M. |first2=P. |last2=Jordan |author-link2=Pascual Jordan |title=Zur Quantenmechanik |url=http://www.cond-mat.physik.uni-mainz.de/~oettel/ws10/born_jordan_ZPhys_34_858_1925.pdf |journal=Zeitschrift für Physik |volume=34 |pages=858–888 |year=1925 |issue=1 |bibcode=1925ZPhy...34..858B |doi=10.1007/BF01328531 |s2cid=186114542 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004232115/http://www.cond-mat.physik.uni-mainz.de/~oettel/ws10/born_jordan_ZPhys_34_858_1925.pdf |archive-date=4 October 2013  }}
* {{cite journal|last=Born|first=M.|title=Zur Quantenmechanik der Stoßvorgänge|journal=Zeitschrift für Physik|volume=37|pages=863–867|year=1926|doi=10.1007/BF01397477|bibcode = 1926ZPhy...37..863B|issue=12|s2cid=119896026}}
* {{cite book |last=Born |first=Max |title=Physics in my Generation |publisher=Springer-Verlag |location=New York |year=1969 |oclc=53116 }}
*{{cite book | last1 = Born | first1 = M. | last2 = Born | first2 = M. E. H. | last3 = Einstein | first3 = A. | author-link3 = Albert Einstein | others = I. Born, trans | title = The Born–Einstein Letters: Correspondence between Albert Einstein and Max and Hedwig Born from 1916 to 1955, with commentaries by Max Born | year = 1971 | publisher = [[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]] | location = [[London, UK]] | isbn = 978-0-8027-0326-2 | name-list-style = amp | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/borneinsteinlett0000eins }}
* {{cite journal |last=Born |first=G. V. R. |author-link=Gustav Victor Rudolf Born |title=The Wide-Ranging Family History of Max Born |journal=Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London |volume=56 |issue= 2 |date=May 2002 |pages=219–262 |doi=10.1098/rsnr.2002.0180 |jstor=3557669|s2cid=72026412 }}
* {{cite book |last=Greenspan |first=Nancy Thorndike |author-link= Nancy Thorndike Greenspan |title=[[The End of the Certain World: The Life and Science of Max Born]] |publisher=Basic Books |location=New York |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-7382-0693-6 |oclc=56534998 }}  Also published in Germany: ''Max Born – Baumeister der Quantenwelt. Eine Biographie'' Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, 2005, {{ISBN|3-8274-1640-X}}.
* {{Cite journal | last1 = Heisenberg | first1 = W. | doi = 10.1007/BF01328377 | title = Über quantentheoretische Umdeutung kinematischer und mechanischer Beziehungen | journal = Zeitschrift für Physik| volume = 33 | issue = 1 | pages = 879–893 | year = 1925 |bibcode = 1925ZPhy...33..879H | s2cid = 186238950 }}
* {{cite book |last=Jammer |first=Max  |title=The Conceptual Development of Quantum Mechanics |url=https://archive.org/details/conceptualdevelo0000jamm |url-access=registration |publisher=McGraw–Hill |year=1966|location=New York|oclc=534562}}
* {{cite book |last1=Jungnickel  |first1=Christa |author1-link=Christa Jungnickel|last2=McCormmach |first2=Russell |author2-link=Russell McCormmach|title=[[Intellectual Mastery of Nature]]. Theoretical Physics from Ohm to Einstein, Volume 2: The Now Mighty Theoretical Physics, 1870 to 1925 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1986 |location=Chicago |isbn=978-0-226-41585-7 |oclc=489992471 }}
* {{Cite journal | last1 = Kemmer | first1 = N. |author-link=Nicholas Kemmer| last2 = Schlapp | first2 = R. |author-link2=Robert Schlapp | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1971.0002 | title = Max Born 1882–1970 | journal = [[Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society]] | volume = 17 | year = 1971 | pages=17–52| s2cid = 73330505 }}
* {{cite book |last=Pais |first=Abraham |author-link=Abraham Pais |year=1991 |title=Niels Bohr's Times, In Physics, Philosophy and Polity |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-19-852049-8 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/nielsbohrstimesi00pais_0 }}
* {{cite book |last=Segrè |first=Emilio |author-link=Emilio Segrè |title=From X-Rays to Quarks: Modern Physicists and their Discoveries |publisher=W. H. Freeman and Company |year=1980 |location=San Francisco |isbn=978-0-7167-1147-6 |oclc=5946636 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/fromxraystoquark0000segr }}

==External links==
{{sister project links |author=yes |wikt=no |n=no |b=no |v=no}}
{{Scholia}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150402141755/http://www.aip.org/servlet/plainHistory?collection=HISTORY&queryText=Max+Born American Institute of Physics History Search: Max Born]
* [https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9080764/Max-Born Encyclopædia Britannica, Max Born – full article]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060828133536/http://alsos.wlu.edu/qsearch.aspx?browse=people%2FBorn%2C+Max Annotated bibliography for Max Born from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues]
* [http://www.vega.org.uk/video/programme/92 Freeview video of Gustav Born (son of Max) with conversation and film on Gustav's memories of his father by the Vega Science Trust]
* [http://www.nobel-winners.com/Physics/max_born.html Max Born information from Nobel Winners site]
* {{Nobelprize}} including his Nobel Lecture, 11 December 1954 ''The Statistical Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics''
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120229151835/http://archiveshub.ac.uk/features/0412born.html Papers of Professor Max Born (1882–1970)] Held at the Edinburgh University Library, Special Collections Division
*[https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/9/resources/1437 The Papers of Professor Max Born] held at [[Churchill Archives Centre]], Cambridge
* {{cite journal|url=https://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1995Ap%26SS.227..277W |bibcode=1995Ap&SS.227..277W |title=Recollections of Max Born |last1=Wolf |first1=Emil |journal=Astrophysics and Space Science |year=1995 |volume=227 |issue=1–2 |page=277 |doi=10.1007/BF00678085 |s2cid=189849885 |ref=none }}
* [[Kuhn, Thomas S.]], [[John L. Heilbron]], [[Paul Forman (historian)|Paul Forman]], and Lini Allen [https://web.archive.org/web/20061004192028/http://www.amphilsoc.org/library/guides/ahqp/index.htm ''Sources for History of Quantum Physics''] (American Philosophical Society, 1967)
* [https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/4522-1 Oral history interview transcript for Max Born on 1 June 1960, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives] - Session I
* [https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/4522-2 Oral history interview transcript for Max Born on 1 June 1960, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives] - Session II
* [https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/4522-3 Oral history interview transcript for Max Born on 17 October 1962, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives] - Session III
* [https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/4522-4 Oral history interview transcript for Max Born on 18 October 1962, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives] - Session IV
* {{cite web |url=http://www.mediatheque.lindau-nobel.org/videos/31519/optical-problems-german-presentation-1959 |title=Video – Max Born (1959): Optical Problems (German presentation) |publisher=[[Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings]] |access-date=19 December 2014}}
* {{Cite journal|date=14 February 1970|title=Professor Max Born|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=225|issue=5233|pages=669–671|doi=10.1038/225669a0|bibcode=1970Natur.225..669.|s2cid=4224915|issn=1476-4687|doi-access=free}}

{{Max Born}}
{{Nobel Prize in Physics Laureates 1951–1975}}
{{1954 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{World Constitutional Convention call signatories}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Born, Max}}
[[Category:1882 births]]
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[[Category:Max Born| ]]
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