Niels Bohr - Atomic Theory, Model & Quotes

Who Was Niels Bohr?

Niels Bohr was an accomplished physicist who came up with a revolutionary theory on atomic structures and radiation emission. He won the 1922 Nobel Prize in physics for his ideas and years later, after working on the Manhattan Project in the United States, called for responsible and peaceful applications of atomic energy across the world.

Early Life

Niels Bohr was born on October 7, 1885, in Copenhagen, Denmark, to mother Ellen Adler, who was part of a successful Jewish banking clan, and father Christian Bohr, a celebrated physiology academic. The young Bohr eventually attended Copenhagen University, where he received his master's and doctorate in physics by 1911. During the fall of the same year, Bohr traveled to Cambridge, England, where he was able to follow the Cavendish Laboratory work of scientist J.J. Thomson.

In 1912, Bohr wed Margrethe Nørlund. The couple would have six children; four survived to adulthood and one, Aage, would become a well-known physics scientist as well.

Bohr’s own research led him to theorize in a series of articles that atoms give off electromagnetic radiation as a result of electrons jumping to different orbit levels, departing from a previously held model espoused by Ernest Rutherford. Though Bohr's discovery would eventually be tweaked by other scientists, his ideas formed the basis of future atomic research.

After teaching at Manchester’s Victoria University, Bohr settled again at Copenhagen University in 1916 with a professorship position. Then, in 1920, he founded the university’s Institute of Theoretical Physics, which he would head for the rest of his life.