In case you were wondering, Nobel prizewinning physicist Wolfgang Pauli was five feet four inches (162cm) tall, had brown eyes, black hair and a ruddy complexion and, in 1946, weighed 174 pounds (79kg). We know this thanks to the permit to depart from the United States issued to him on 12 February 1946.

This document replaced a permit that had been hurriedly issued on 21 November 1945 (Countries to be Visited: “Sweden”; Nature of Business: “To accept the Nobel Prize”!) After careful consideration, Pauli had decided to postpone his trip to Stockholm until 1946, and he and his wife left for Europe at the end of February. The trip included lectures en route, and they visited Ireland, Britain and France before returning to Switzerland, where he took up his professorial duties at Zurich over the summer, and then continuing to Copenhagen for the prize giving ceremony in December.