Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger (12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961), sometimes written as Erwin Schrodinger or Erwin Schroedinger, was a Nobel Prize-winning Austrian physicist who developed a number of fundamental results in the field of quantum theory, which formed the basis of wave mechanics: he formulated the wave equation (stationary and time-dependent Schrödinger equation) and revealed the identity of his development of the formalism and matrix mechanics. Schrödinger proposed an original interpretation of the physical meaning of the wave function.

In addition, he was the author of many works in various fields of physics: statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, physics of dielectrics, colour theory, electrodynamics, general relativity, and cosmology, and he made several attempts to construct a unified field theory. In his book What Is Life? Schrödinger addressed the problems of genetics, looking at the phenomenon of life from the point of view of physics. He paid great attention to the philosophical aspects of science, ancient and oriental philosophical concepts, ethics, and religion. He also wrote on philosophy and theoretical biology.

Schrödinger was born in Vienna, Austria, to Rudolf Schrödinger (cerecloth producer, botanist) and Georgine Emilia Brenda (daughter of Alexander Bauer, Professor of Chemistry, Technische Hochschule Vienna). He was their only child.

His mother was half Austrian and half English; his father was Catholic and his mother was Lutheran. Despite being raised in a religious household, he called himself an atheist. However, he had strong interests in Eastern religions, pantheism and used religious symbolism in his works. He also believed his scientific work was an approach to the godhead, albeit in a metaphorical sense.

He was also able to learn English outside of school, as his maternal grandmother was British. Between 1906 and 1910 Schrödinger studied in Vienna under Franz S. Exner (1849–1926) and Friedrich Hasenöhrl (1874–1915). He also conducted experimental work with Karl Wilhelm Friedrich “Fritz” Kohlrausch.

What many do not know is that one of Schrödinger’s lesser-known areas of scientific contribution (that relates to screenprinting of today) was his work on color, color perception, and colorimetry (Farbenmetrik).

In 1911, Schrödinger became an assistant to Franz S. Exner. At an early age, Schrödinger was strongly influenced by Arthur Schopenhauer. As a result of his extensive reading of Schopenhauer’s works, he became deeply interested throughout his life in color theory and philosophy. In his lecture “Mind and Matter”, he said that “The world extended in space and time is but our representation.” This is a repetition of the first words of Schopenhauer’s main work.

In 1920, he published three papers in the area of color theory:

“Theorie der Pigmente von größter Leuchtkraft”, Annalen der Physik, (4), 62, (1920), 603–22 (Theory of Pigments with Highest Luminosity)
“Grundlinien einer Theorie der Farbenmetrik im Tagessehen”, Annalen der Physik, (4), 63, (1920), 397–456; 481–520 (Outline of a theory of colour measurement for daylight vision)
“Farbenmetrik”, Zeitschrift für Physik, 1, (1920), 459–66 (Colour measurement).

The second of these is available in English as “Outline of a Theory of Colour Measurement for Daylight Vision” in Sources of Colour Science, Ed. David L. MacAdam, The MIT Press (1970), 134–82.

Schrödinger suffered from tuberculosis and several times in the 1920s stayed at a sanatorium in Arosa. It was there that he formulated his wave equation.

On 4 January 1961, Schrödinger died in Vienna at the age of 73 of tuberculosis. He left his wife Annemarie (Anny) a widow, and was buried in Alpbach, Austria, in a Catholic cemetery. Although he was not Catholic, the priest in charge of the cemetery permitted the burial after learning Schrödinger was a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. His wife, Annemarie (born 3 December 1896) died on 3 October 1965.

On Erwin Schrödinger’s gravesite (with his wife Annemarie) above the name plate Schrödinger’s quantum mechanical wave function is inscribed: