Niels Bohr
Niels Bohr is a big person in the history of chemistry. If it wasn’t for him we would not have known as much as we do now about the atom. He came to a conclusion of so many unanswered questions people were left after the discovery of the electron. He also participated in the United State’s biggest project that helped us win World War II. If it wasn’t for Niels Bohr we probably would not have as many things as we do today. He is one, if not, the biggest person in the history of Chemistry. Niels Bohr was born around the time people started to research more about the atom. In his early years J.J. Thomson discovered the electron which would later have a big debate. During Bohr’s college days, he became a pupil of J.J. Thomson. They both began to work on the structure of the atom and trying to figure out how it works. They both started using everyone’s theories and put them together for example; he used Max Planck’s quanta theory, and used what Ernest Rutherford suggested what the atom was like. By putting these together Bohr and Thomson found out that the electrons at a certain distance away from the nucleus which were called energy levels. They also figured out that when electrons absorb energy it goes to higher energy levels moving farther from the nucleus, but when it loses energy it goes down energy levels and gets closer to the nucleus. Even though Bohr’s model isn’t 100% perfect, his model is more accurate then what others came up with. Later on though many others have improved Bohr’s model and made it more accurate. After Bohr completed his atomic model he then won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his model. Bohr got right back to work after he won the Nobel Prize and started to research atomic nuclei and learning more about them and also settled some differences in quantum physics. While he was doing this Bohr went back to his homeland over in Europe during the time World War II started. After Germany was taking over Europe he was able to flee to Sweden
Cited: "Niels Bohr | Biography | Atomicarchive.com." Atomicarchive.com: Exploring the History, Science, and Consequences of the Atomic Bomb. Web. 30 Nov. 2010. <http://www.atomicarchive.com/Bios/Bohr.shtml>. "A Science Odyssey: People and Discoveries: Niels Bohr." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. Web. 30 Nov. 2010. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bpbohr.html>.