Erwin Schrodinger

Erwin Schrodinger was born on August 12, 1887 in Vienna, Austria.   His father, Rudolf Schrodinger, ran a small linoleum factory which was given to him by his father.   His mother, Georgine Emilia Brenda, was half Austrian and half English.   Erwin learned to speak English and German almost simultaneously, since they were both spoken at home.   He received private lessons at home from a tutor until the age of 10, when he entered in the Akademisches Gymnasium.   He says that he was a good student in all subjects, but had a love for mathematics and physics especially.   Schrodinger graduated in 1906, and entered the University of Vienna in the same year.   Some examples of what he studied in theoretical physics are analytical mechanics, applications of partial differential equations to dynamics, and statistical mechanics.   He found Fritz Hasenöhrl's lectures on theoretical physics to be the most inspiring.   In mathematics, he was taught calculus, algebra, projective geometry, and more.  
In May 1910, Schrodinger was awarded his doctorate for his dissertation on the conduction of electricity on the surface of insulators in moist air.   Then he volunteered for military service in the fortress artillery, and later was appointed to an assistantship at Vienna.   Surprisingly, though, it was in experimental, not theoretical physics.   In 1914, his first important paper was published on the ideas of Boltzmann.   When World War I started, however, he was ordered to the Italian Border, and then transferred to Hungary.   He did not let this stop him from continuing his theoretical work, and even published more papers from the fronts.   Erwin changed jobs numerous times, until accepting an assistantship at Jena, moving to a chair at Breslau, and then accepted the chair of theoretical physics in Zurich in late 1921.