1933: Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (1902-1984)

Nobel Prize for Physics 1933 (jointly with Erwin Schrödinger)

"for the discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory"

Paul Dirac came to St John’s in 1923 to read for a PhD in Mathematical Physics, having already received his BSc from Bristol. After having his doctorate conferred in 1926, he remained associated with St John’s until his death in 1984; firstly as a Title A (Research) Fellow from 1927-32, then as a Professorial Fellow from 1932-69, while he held the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in the University. He remained a Fellow of the College from 1969-84 under Title D, whilst ending his career as Professor of Physics at Florida State University (1971-84).

Throughout his career he made numerous contributions to the fields of quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics, the latter of which he is regarded as the founder of. Amongst other things, he predicted the existence of anti-matter and formulated the relativistic equation for the electron.

His distinguished career garnered him many honours and plaudits. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1930, going on to receive many of its top awards: Royal Medal in 1939, Bakerian Lecture in 1941 and the Copley Medal in 1952. He was awarded the Order of Merit (OM) in 1973, an Honour restricted to 24 living persons at any one time.