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Niels Bohr (7 October 1885 - 18 November 1962)
Niels Bohr -
Education
Niels Bohr was born in Copenhagen Denmark. Bohr was homeschooled until the age of seven at which time he began his education at Gammelholm Latin School in Denmark. Bohr would go on to attend the Copenhagen University and remain until he received his doctorate degree in 1911. (Prasad, 2013) Bohr's major was Electron Theory. -
Cavendish Laboratory
In finishing his doctorate, Niels Bohr had accepted a one-year fellowship in England to work with J.J. Thomson at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. (Prasad, 2013) This was an exciting opportunity for Bohr as Thomson was an admirable figure of his. Thomson is known for his discovery of the electron and is whom Bohr wrote his Ph.D. thesis of Electron Theory. (Peierls, 1988) The excitements soon deflated when Thomson rebuffed Bohr’s thesis without ever reading a word. -
Rutherford
Due to the conflictions with Thomson, it was determined that Bohr would finish the rest of his fellowship working under Ernst Rutherford, a physicist’s professor and acquaintance located in Manchester. Bohr finished his fellowship and left Manchester in 1912. (Peierls, 1988) -
Quantum Theory
- Quantum Mechanics. Bohr’s atomic model and orbits of electrons presented a problem. The electrons would jump from one orbit to one of lesser energy unless its current position was at a “stable” state or in the first orbit. When the electron did jump, it emitted radiation. (Newton, 2009) It was theorized by Bohr that the electrons only inhibit an orbit based on their energy levels meaning one could jump based on the absorption or emission of energy.
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Bohr's Atomic Model
Bohr’s work following his leave from Manchester led to his development of the “Bohr’s Atomic Model". Bohr kept in touch with Rutherford through several letters and visits to Manchester, in which he provided criticism to Bohr’s work. Rutherford would eventually approved and send Bohr’s work to the Philosophical Magazine in 1913.(Peierls, 1988) Bohr’s model concluded that negatively charged electrons navigate through different orbits around a positively charged nucleus of an atom. -
Nobel Prize
It wasn’t until Fredrick Soddy discovered his work that he had won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. (Prasad, 2013) Soddy worked with Rutherford and was well known for his work in Radioactivity. (Patwardhan., 2018) -
Niels Bohr Institute
Established in 1921 by Bohr and was originally known as the Institute of Theoretical Physics at the University of Copenhagen. Following his hiring as a Theoretical Professor in 1914, Bohr became the head of the institute in 1920 and remained until his death in (1962). The institute became the Niels Bohr Institute on his 80th birthday. (1965) The institute focused on the learning of Atomic Physics and Quantum Physics. -
Nuclear Fission & The Atomic Bomb
- Nuclear Fission & The Atomic Bomb (1939). Bohr Visited the United States in 1939 relaying the discover of nuclear fission. German Scientists were able to split the Uranium Atom. Bohr stayed in the United States at the Princeton University until 1940. It is here he developed his discovery and make of the first Atomic Bomb. (Faulkner, 2017)
