Ever since last Novem ber, I have been wanting to ex press in person my gratit ude to the generas ity of Alfred Nobel, to w hom i ow e it t hat I am privileged be here today, es pecial y since ill ness prevented me from doi ng so at the proper time. the idealism w hic h permeated his char acter led him to make his magnifice nt foundation for the benefit of a cl ass of men with w hose aims and view poi nt his ow n scienti fic instincts and a bility had made him naturally his
Nobel Lecture december 13. 1946 The history of the discovery of the exclusion principle m, for which I have received the honor of the Nobel Prize award in the year 1945, goes back to my students days in Munich. While, in school in Vienna, I had already ob- tained some knowledge of classical physics and the then new Einstein rel- ativity theory, it was at the University of Munich that I was introduced by Sommerfeld to the structure of the atom- somewhat strange from the point of view of classical physics. I was not spared the which every
