Erwin Schrödinger, the Austrian-born Nobel Prize winning physicist, was personally invited by Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera, to come to live in Ireland in 1939. Who is he and why did the Taoiseach extend this invitation?

Schrödinger was born in 1887, in Vienna. From an early age he showed remarkable talents and intellectual capabilities. He had a wide range of interests including studying English and other languages, reading and writing German poems, and also visiting shows at the theatres of Vienna. It was however his extraordinary talent for physics which would make him renowned across the world.

One of Schrödinger’s early notable contributions was to the theory of colour in which he proposed a geometric approach.

He attracted international attention for his contribution to the early development of quantum theory. Quantum theory describes the most fundamental units of matter (tiniest particles) in our universe (more about this later). His impact in this area was so important that he became respected amongst the most prominent physicists at the time, notably Albert Einstein, and he was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1933.

He communicated a lot with Einstein via letters in which they shared their views on physics, often accompanied with descriptions of little thought experiments. One of these, the Schrödinger cat thought experiment, became so popular that even more than 50 years later it still pops up in television series like Futurama, The Big Bang Theory, and Dr. Who, amongst many others.

Though he was very successful, Schrödinger lived in a very volatile time, with the rise of the Nazis in Germany and Austria just before World War II. He fled Berlin, where he had been a professor, and sought alternative locations to continue his career. Eventually, after several short stays in places like Oxford and Princeton (USA) he ended up in Ireland at the invitation of Eamon de Valera who offered to set up an institute for him, the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

In Ireland he lived in the house you stand in front of, with his wife Anny and his mistress Hilde with whom he had a daughter Ruth. Interesting but that is a story for another time! In the coming stops you will see places that Schrödinger often visited in his time in Dublin and on his cycle to his office in Merrion Square. As you will learn, he enjoyed Dublin very much. Schrödinger acquired Irish citizenship in 1948 and retired and returned to Austria in 1956.

* Please note: This is a private home and is not open to the public. Please respect the residents and their property, by remaining on the road or the public path.*