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Bohr's first contribution to quantum physics
Quantum physics was still a relatively new idea when Niels Bohr first made his contributions with Ernest Rutherford at the University of Manchester. In 1913, he published three articles of his work in "The Philosophical Magazine." He stated that in an atom, electrons had a defined orbit around a nucleus. He also stated that electromagnetic radiation only occurs when an electron jumped to a lower energy orbit. This is knows as the Bohr atomic model. -
Bohr received the Nobel Prize in Physics
In 1922, Bohr was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. He applied his theory to the periodic table of elements. He developed the theory where electrons are added one after another to the atom according to his atomic model. Physical chemist Georg Hevesy and Dirk Coster proved Bohr's theory by stating that an undiscovered element would behave according to the theory. -
The development of quantum mechanics
In 1925, Bohr's assistant Werner Heisenberg developed quantum mechanics. Bohr, Heisenberg, and others developed what is now knows as the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. A major element of it is Bohr’s complementarity principle which states "on the atomic level a physical phenomenon expresses itself differently depending on the experimental setup used to observe it."
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Atomic Bomb
In 1943, Bohr was invited to England to do important scientific work, which he assumed had to do with developing the atomic bomb. The Danish government collaborated with the German occupiers which led to Bohr's imminent arrest. He ended up escaping to Sweden with his family. He was then brought to London and joined the Allies on the creation of the Atomic Bomb.