Niels Bohr

Today is the birthday of Niels Bohr, who was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1885. After earning a PhD physics at the University of Copenhagen, Bohr moved to Cambridge University and the University of Manchester. His exposure to the groundbreaking atomic and nuclear physics being conducted by J.J. Thomson and Ernest Rutherford, combined with his study of quantum mechanics, inspired Bohr to find a physical explanation for Johann Balmer’s numerical formula for the hydrogen spectrum. In 1913, having returned to Copenhagen, Bohr published his famous model of atoms and ions that have one electron (H, He+, Li++, . . .). The model was an important milestone in quantum mechanics and earned Bohr the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physics. He later collaborated with Werner Heisenberg and others to develop the Copenhagen interpretation, which attempts to explain the counterintuitive implications of quantum mechanics.

Date in History: 7 October 1885