Biography Bohr, a Danish physicist, philosopher and promoter of scientific research, was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1885. His father, Christian Bohr, was a physiology professor at Copenhagen University. Bohr’s mother, Ellen Adler Bohr, came from a prominent wealthy Danish Jewish family. Bohr’s brother, Harald, became a great mathematician and footballer while Jenny, Bohr’s sister, became a teacher. Bohr went to Gammelholm Latin School at the age of seven and enrolled at Copenhagen University in 1903. He majored in physics but also studied mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy. Bohr also received some of his education from his academic family and benefited from his father’s laboratory in the Copenhagen University. He received his master’s …show more content…
In 1905, he conducted a research paper on measuring surface tension that won him the gold medal of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. In 1921, prior to his Nobel Prize in 1922, he won the “Hughes Medal” for his theoretical physics research. He then won the Matteuci Medal (1923) and then the Franklin Meal (1926). Bohr was also conferred the Max Planck Medal (1930) and the “Copley Medal” (1938) for his contributions to quantum physics. The same year Bohr got the Atoms for Peace Award, he was also given the “Sonning Prize” from Coppenhagen …show more content…
In 1913, he introduced “the trilogy”, three quantum papers describing the Bohr model of the atom which is currently used in many chemistry and physics texts. This brought him widespread recognition. His model presents atoms as small positively charged nuclei circularly orbited by negatively charged electrons. The electrons have separate orbits with the last orbit’s number of electrons significantly affecting the element’s chemical properties. He suggested that electrons are confined to particular orbits and can jump to other orbits by absorbing or emitting energy. This explained matter’s absorption and emission of energy and solved instability problem in Rutherford’s