Niels Bohr, born on October 7, 1885 earned his place as a Nobel Prize winning Physicist. Throughout his life time, Bohr had many great accomplishments; one of which was his Bohr Model. None of this would have been possible if it wasn’t for Christopher Bohr, Niels’ father, and his influence. Not only was Bohr a successful physicist, but also a successful father. In 1912 he was married to a woman named Margrethe, whom he had a total of six children with. This man lived a very successful life.
In his earlier years, Bohr attended Gammelholm Grammar School. In 1903, he moved on to the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. He began studying under a brilliant physicist, Professor C. Christiansen. After much hard work, Bohr achieved his Master’s degree for Physics in 1909. He later earned his PhD in 1911.
What marked the beginning of his career was his award from the Academy of Sciences. Bohr had to theorize and experiment to find the solution of a certain scientific problem. He had to investigate the surface tension caused by oscillating fluid jets. His father allowed him to work out this problem in his laboratory. For his accomplishments he received the prize of a gold medal.
One of Bohr’s biggest accomplishments was his discovery of the fundamental structure and character of the atom and its components. Along with this, he also discovered how they interact. For this, Bohr won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1922. We call this discovery the Bohr Model. His model looks something similar to a solar system. He worked off Ernest Rutherford’s statement that the atom had a very small, dense nucleus that was surrounded by an electron cloud. Bohr model did have some problems though. Today we know that the electrons don’t stay on a fixed orbit, but that they jump to different energy levels depending on the amount of energy that they carry. None the less, without Bohr’s discovery who knows if we’d be at the level of physics we are at today.
Bohr returned to the University of Copenhagen where he became a physics professor in 1916. He was recognized as the Professor of Theoretical Physics. In 1920 he eventually became the head of the Institute for Theoretical Physics. This was Bohr’s job until the end of his life.
A key factor to in all of Niels’ success was owed to his family influence. Without this influence on Niels, he may never have taken an interest in Physics or may never have become a college Professor. His father, Christian Bohr, was a Physiology Professor at Copenhagen University. In 1880, Christian was awarded a doctorate in physiology by the university, and later became a Privatdozent in 1881. Neils mother, Ellen Adler, was also extraordinary in the field of education.
Bohr also had an older sister named Jenny and a younger brother named Herald. Not much is known about Jenny except that she was born in the year 1883. Herald, born in 1887, however, became a very successful Mathematics Professor.
Later in life, Bohr married and had a total of six children. Margrethe Norlund was the mother to these six children. Two of these six children were lost, but the other four went on to have accomplished careers. Hans Henrick became an MD, Erik a chemical engineer, Aage acquired a PhD as a theoretical physicist, and Ernest was a lawyer. Aage won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1975, just like his father.
While World War II was going on, Bohr ran off to Sweden to escape the destruction. He then went to England and America for the last two years of the war. During this time, Bohr dedicated his time to the study of atomic physics. Problems began to present themselves around this time; Countries were threatening with atomic weapon development. He spent time working to solve this problem by encouraging nations to have full openness.
The Order of the Elephant award was yet another accomplishment of the great Neils Bohr. This was awarded to him by the Danish government for his avocations to use nuclear energy peacefully. It was odd that he received such a reward when normally, the Order of the Elephant was only presented to royalty or distinguished generals. When designing his coat of arms, he used the famous taijitu; the symbol for yin and yang. He used this symbol to represent the principle of complementarity; upon which he based his views of the fundamental laws of physics.
Bohr had a total of one hundred and fifteen writings that were published. Three of these one hundred and fifteen were books in the English language. These three books were: The Theory of Spectra and Atomic Constitution published by the University Press in Cambridge, 1922; Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature published by the University Press in Cambridge, 1934; The Unity of Knowledge published by Doubleday & Co. in New York, 1955.
Niels Henrik David Bohr died November 18, 1962 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Some say he died of a heart attack, others say it was a stroke. No matter what the cause of death, Bohr lived a very fruitful life full of discovery and accomplishment.
Works Cited
Bohr Model, The . 12 Oct 2010. < http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/light/bohr.html>
Magill, Frank N. The Great Scientists V.2. Danbury, Connecticut: Grolier Educational Corporation, 1989.
Niels Bohr . 2010. 12 Oct 2010. < http://www.answers.com/topic/niels-bohr>
Neils Bohr . 1998. 12 Oct 2010.
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Nobel Prize . 1922. 12 Oct 2010.
