EINSTEIN S PROPOSALS FOR THE NOBEL PRIZE 515found in the excellent Freud biography by Ernest Jones [Jl]. I mention here one
additional comment by Einstein on Freud, contained in a letter written in 1949:
'The old one had ... a sharp vision; no illusion lulled him asleep except for an
often exaggerated faith in his own ideas'* [E2]. I leave, of course, to myself and
to my readers all attempts to analyse what this statement reveals about Freud and
about Einstein.- September 25, 1928. This is the first of three letters in which Einstein
focuses attention on the founding of quantum mechanics. 'In my opinion, the most
important and not yet rewarded achievement in physics is the insight into the wave
nature of mechanical processes.' He makes several suggestions. First, that one half
of an award should go to de Broglie, the other half to be shared by 'Davison [sic]
und ein Mitarbeiter' (C. J. Davisson and L. H. Germer). He finds it 'a difficult
case since de Broglie is the decisive initiator without having exhausted the issue
[because he] has not thought of the possibility of an experimental proof of the
existence of matter waves. (This is not quite correct. De Boglie did mention the
possibility of matter diffraction in his PhD thesis.) Einstein continues: 'Equiva-
lently, the theoreticians Heisenberg and Schroedinger (one shared Nobel prize)
should be considered (for 1930?). With respect to achievement, each one of these
investigators deserves a full Nobel prize although their theories in the main coin-
cide in regard to reality content. However, in my opinion, de Broglie should take
precedence, especially because [his] idea is certainly correct, while it still seems
problematic how much will ultimately survive of the grandiosely conceived theo-
ries of the two last-named investigators.'
As further alternatives, Einstein mentions one prize to be shared by de Broglie
and Schroedinger, another by Heisenberg, Born, and Jordan. He does not con-
sider this quite ideal since Heisenberg is relatively the strongest case of the three.
Nor does he feel comfortable giving the award for quantum mechanics to theo-
reticians only.
The Dirac equation was published early in 1928. It is significant that neither
in 1928 nor at any subsequent time does Einstein ever propose Dirac.
In 1929 the physics prize is awarded to de Broglie 'for his discovery of the wave
nature of the electron.' In 1937,' Davisson shares the prize with G. P. Thomson
'for their experimental discoveries of the diffraction of electrons by crystals.' - September 20, 1931. Einstein is now convinced that quantum mechanics
will survive.** He proposes 'the founders of the wave, or quantum, mechanics,
Professor E. Schroedinger from Berlin and Professor W. Heisenberg from
Leipzig. In my opinion, this theory contains without doubt a piece of the ultimate
truth. The achievements of both men are independent of each other and so signif-
icant that it would not be appropriate to divide a Nobel prize between them.
* Der Alte hat aber scharf gesehen; er hat sich durch keine Illusion einlullen lassen ausser manchmal
durch ein iibertriebenes Vertrauen in die eigenen Einfalle.**See Section 25a.