(Source: Book – "Einstein: His Life and Universe")

His dedication paid off, as his students went on to make major contributions to science and received the highest honors in their field.

9/9

Regardless of how many students attended, the story clearly shows Chandrasekhar’s strong commitment to teaching and the academic environment he created.

8/n

Remarkably, even Enrico Fermi, one of the most influential physicists of the 20th century and recipient of the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics, occasionally sat in on Chandrasekhar's classes.

7/n

In his chapter in “From White Dwarfs to Black Holes: The Legacy of S. Chandrasekhar” (edited by G. Srinivasan), the American astronomer Donald E. Osterbrock clarifies that several other students also attended these lectures. 6/n

While a popular anecdote suggests that Lee and Yang were the only two students in the class, historical accounts paint a richer picture. 5/n

When asked why he invested so much effort into teaching such a small class, Chandrasekhar offered a simple yet profound response: "They are very good students."

4/n

Among those students were Tsung-Dao (T.D.) Lee and Chen-Ning Yang, who would go on to share the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics for their pioneering work on parity violation in weak interactions. 3/n

Each week, he made the long journey from Yerkes Observatory to the University of Chicago to teach a graduate course—often attended by only a handful of students. 2/n

In February 1927, the young Werner Heisenberg developed a key piece of quantum theory, the uncertainty principle, with profound implications.

100 years later, that revolution continues.

5/5

In the months that followed, Heisenberg’s work was extended by Max Born and Pascual Jordan, while Erwin Schrödinger developed his own wave-based approach. Together, their efforts reshaped physics forever.

4/n

With this work, Heisenberg abandoned classical paths and proposed a new framework based solely on observable quantities.

It marked the beginning of modern quantum mechanics.

3/n

Shortly after his stay, Heisenberg submitted a paper to Zeitschrift für Physik titled “On the quantum-theoretical reinterpretation of kinematic and mechanical relationships.”

2/n

Despite the sincere plea, Ostwald never replied.

Yet, nine years later, it was Wilhelm Ostwald who became the first person to nominate Albert Einstein for the Nobel Prize.

2/2

Fun Fact: When this extraordinary thesis became available online, it nearly broke the internet! 🙂