The Britannica Guide to Relativity and Quantum Mechanics by Britannica Educational Publishing

Author:Britannica Educational Publishing
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Britannica Educational Publishing
Published: 2011-04-12T04:00:00+00:00

NIELS BOHR

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(b. Oct. 7, 1885, Copenhagen, Den.—d. Nov. 18, 1962, Copenhagen)

Danish physicist Niels Henrik David Bohr is generally regarded as one of the foremost physicists of the 20th century. He was the first to apply the quantum concept, which restricts the energy of a system to certain discrete values, to the problem of atomic and molecular structure. For this work he received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1922. His manifold roles in the origins and development of quantum physics may be his most important contribution, but through his long career his involvements were substantially broader, both inside and outside the world of physics.

Bohr was the second of three children born into an upper middle-class Copenhagen family. His mother, Ellen (née Adler), was the daughter of a prominent Jewish banker. His father, Christian, became a professor of physiology at the University of Copenhagen and was nominated twice for the Nobel Prize.

Enrolling at the University of Copenhagen in 1903, Bohr was never in doubt that he would study physics. Research and teaching in this field took place in cramped quarters at the Polytechnic Institute, leased to the University for the purpose. Bohr obtained his doctorate in 1911 with a dissertation on the electron theory of metals.

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