author
Niels Bohr
1885–1962
A brilliant Danish physicist who helped change how the world understood the atom, he became one of the central figures in the birth of quantum theory. His ideas shaped modern physics and sparked some of the 20th century’s most famous scientific debates.
5 Audiobooks
On the constitution of atoms and molecules
by Niels Bohr
About the author
Born in Copenhagen on October 7, 1885, Niels Bohr studied physics at the University of Copenhagen and went on to do important early work in England with J. J. Thomson and Ernest Rutherford. In 1922, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his research on atomic structure and the radiation emitted by atoms.
Bohr is best known for proposing an influential model of the atom and for helping lay the foundations of quantum theory. He also became closely associated with what came to be called the Copenhagen interpretation, and his exchanges with Albert Einstein over the meaning of quantum mechanics became legendary in the history of science.
Beyond his scientific discoveries, Bohr was an important mentor and institution builder. He founded a major institute for theoretical physics in Copenhagen, which became a gathering place for many of the leading physicists of the era. During World War II he fled Nazi-occupied Denmark, later contributing to Allied atomic research, and after the war he spoke publicly for international openness and cooperation in science. He died in Copenhagen on November 18, 1962.