Niels Bohr: Biography & Atomic Theory
Elizabeth Palermo
Right: Antonio Abrignani Niels Bohr was one of the foremost scientists of modern physics, best known for his substantial contributions to quantum theory and his Nobel Prize-winning research on the structure of atoms. He studied the subject throughout his undergraduate and graduate years and earned a doctorate in physics in 1911 from Copenhagen University. He went back to Copenhagen University in 1916 to become a professor of theoretical physics. Combining Rutherford’s description of the nucleus and Planck’s theory about quanta, Bohr explained what happens inside an atom and developed a picture of atomic structure. Despite his contributions to the U.S. Atomic Energy Project during World War II, Bohr was an outspoken advocate for the peaceful application of atomic physics.