Return to AIP Home Page
Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (1902-1984) Photo Photo
"It is quite clear that beauty does depend on one's culture and upbringing for certain kinds of beauty, pictures, literature, poetry and so on...But mathematical beauty is of a rather different kind. I should say perhaps it is of a completely different kind and transcends these personal factors. It is the same in all countries and at all periods of time."--Paul Dirac  Dirac enjoyed mountain climbing and ascended several well-known peaks, such as Mount Elbruz in the Caucasus. He prepared for these excursions by climbing trees in the hills outside Cambridge, wearing the same black suit in which he was always seen about campus. 
Photo B18; young, in front of blackboard. CREDIT: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives

Photo C6; with Richard Feynman, Warsaw, Poland, July 1962. CREDIT: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Physics Today Collection.

  . . .