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Thanks meursault. I should make some progress now.

It's a perfectly solvable Playfair once you realise that each of the 2 squares encodes both names, using the alternative letters, and if you've got the two plaintext words: you then have 37 of the 44 letters in each case. The easiest way into a Playfair is to identify letter pairs in the same row or column, eg where BE in the 10-letter name encodes to WB at 30a/35a: that means that EBW must be a sequence (as it happens, involving a wraparound in this case)
A very nice puzzle though 7d.2 had me foxed for a long time - but it was ruminating on the Copenhagen interpretation part of that that led me serendipitously to answers for the thematic names

I think serendipitous suggests completely by chance, or witchcraft or occultism or something... I'd say on the contrary, and that the setter was giving you the hint 'Copenhagen Interpretation' for one physicist, and also 37D, the connection of Irish and Zurich, coupled with 21A 'anabiotic' and 'waves' was pretty well giving you the other physicist. If the setter gives you something, then the solving isn't serendipity.

tjc, I agree this was quite a headscratcher.

Just one thing though, are you sure you are showing the thematic animal in your final grid ? If you have encoded BE to WB , then presumably you have used the four-letter code for 10 Down.

I found I could only reveal said animal by using the eight-letter code for 10 Down and the four-letter code for 1 Across. Worth checking.

Is it too early to wish all you puzzlers out there a very Happy Christmas? Oh well, done it now...have a good time everyone.