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Niels Bohr (1885–1962)

1922 Physics

For his services in the investigation of the structure of atoms and of the radiation emanating from them.

Niels Henrik David Bohr’s father was an eminent physiologist, and his mother was born into a family long connected to higher education. With his younger brother, Harald, who would later become a professor in mathematics, Niels grew up in an atmosphere that allowed him to develop his genius, thanks mostly to his parents’ efforts and influence.

He studied at the University of Copenhagen and was a student of the well-known physicist Christien Christiansen, receiving his doctorate degree in 1911. The first steps in his career were taken while he was still a student. Knowing that the Academy of Sciences in Copenhagen had announced a prize for whoever solved a specific scientific problem, Bohr started experimental research into superficial tension using oscillating fluid jets. He worked in his father’s laboratory and won the Academy’s gold medal prize for his work.

After a stay in Cambridge, England, Bohr started working in Professor Ernest Rutherford’s laboratory in Manchester, where he studied radioactive phenomena. While there, he wrote a theoretical work on the absorption of alpha rays and started studying the structure of atoms as presented in Rutherford’s model. Bohr introduced concepts to quantum theory, formulated by Max Planck, and managed to create a model of atomic structure that, with later adjustments, still serves to interpret the physical and chemical properties of elements.

Between 1913 and 1914, Bohr was a lecturer in physics at the University of Copenhagen, a position he also held at Victoria University in Manchester between 1914 and 1916. Following this, he worked as a professor of theoretical physics at the University of Copenhagen and from 1920 onward he was head of the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the same institution. Bohr wrote numerous scientific essays between 1933 and 1962, and he balanced his work with the presidency of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and other institutions.

He received honorary doctorates throughout his life from more than 30 universities. The 1922 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Bohr in recognition of his work on atomic structure and contributions to solving problems in the field of quantum physics, particularly in the development of the concept of complimentarily.

During the Nazi occupation of Denmark, Bohr escaped to Sweden then spent the last two years of World War II in England and the United States, where he was associated with the Atomic Energy Project. The last years of his life were dedicated to the peaceful application of atomic physics and problems emerging from the development of atomic weapons.

Niels Bohr was married in 1912 to Margrethe Nørlund, and the couple had six sons.