Neils Bohr

Neils Bohr

Niels Bohr was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, on October 7, 1885.   He is a Danish physicist that had made major contributions to our understanding of the structure of the quantum theory and the properties of atoms. He offered a theoretical explanation of line spectra, which is another phenomenon that had puzzled scientists in the nineteenth century. From 1911 to 1913, he studied in England, working first with J.J Thomson at Cambridge University and then with Ernest Rutherford at the University of Manchester. He published his quantum theory of the atom in 1914 and was awarded the Noble Prize in physics in 1922.

During the World War II, he escaped from the Nazis and became involved with the Atomic Energy Project. Later, he helped the development of atomic weapons and built the first atomic bomb or energy. In addition, Bohr also contributed the clarification of the problems encountered in quantum physics by developing the concept of complementarily. Before that, scientists thought electrons could be found anywhere around the atom.

In 1913, Bohr published a theory about the structure of the atom based on an earlier theory of Rutherford's. Rutherford had shown that the atom consisted of a positively charged nucleus, with negatively charged electrons in orbit around it. Bohr expanded upon this theory by proposing that electrons travel only in certain successively larger orbits. He suggested that the outer orbits could hold more electrons than the inner ones, and that these outer orbits determine the atom's chemical properties.

Furthermore, Bohr had won the 1922 Nobel Prize for physics for his contributions of the atomic structure. He died in Copenhagen on November 18, 1962.