The Niels Bohr Institute (Danish: ''Niels Bohr Institutet'') is a research institute of the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public research university in Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia after Uppsala Unive ...

. The research of the institute spans

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...

geophysics Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. The term ''geophysics'' so ...

, nanotechnology,

particle physics Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) an ...

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistr ...

and

biophysics Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations. ...

Overview

The institute was founded in 1921, as the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the University of Copenhagen, by the Danish theoretical physicist

Niels Bohr Niels Henrik David Bohr (; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922 ...

, who had been on the staff of the University of Copenhagen since 1914, and who had been lobbying for its creation since his appointment as professor in 1916. On the 80th anniversary of Niels Bohr's birth – October 7, 1965 – the Institute officially became the Niels Bohr Institute. Much of its original funding came from the charitable foundation of the Carlsberg brewery, and later from the Rockefeller Foundation. During the 1920s, and 1930s, the institute was the center of the developing disciplines of atomic physics and quantum physics.

Physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

s from across Europe (and sometimes further abroad) often visited the institute to confer with Bohr on new theories and discoveries. The

Copenhagen interpretation The Copenhagen interpretation is a collection of views about the meaning of quantum mechanics, principally attributed to Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg. It is one of the oldest of numerous proposed interpretations of quantum mechanics, as feat ...

of quantum mechanics is named after work done at the institute during this time. Following his father's death in 1962,

Aage Bohr Aage Niels Bohr (; 19 June 1922 – 8 September 2009) was a Danish nuclear physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1975 with Ben Roy Mottelson and James Rainwater "for the discovery of the connection between collective motion and pa ...

succeeded him as director of the Niels Bohr Institute, a position he held until 1970. He remained active there until he retired in 1992. On January 1, 1993, the institute was merged with the Astronomic Observatory, the Ørsted Laboratory and the Geophysical Institute. The new resulting institute retained the name Niels Bohr Institute.

Research sections

Research at the Niels Bohr Institute is organised in ten research sections covering a broad range of physics, i.e. astrophysics, biophysics, solid state physics, geophysics, particle physics and e-science.

Cosmic Dawn

The Cosmic Dawn Center is an

Astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...

Cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...

research center, founded as a collaboration between the University of Copenhagen and

DTU Space The National Space Institute at the Technical University of Denmark, also known as DTU Space ( da, Institut for Rumforskning og Rumteknologi), is a Danish sector research institute and a part of the Technical University of Denmark. It has a sta ...

of the

Danish Technical University The Technical University of Denmark ( da, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet), often simply referred to as DTU, is a polytechnic university and school of engineering. It was founded in 1829 at the initiative of Hans Christian Ørsted as Denmark's fi ...

(DTU). The center is led by center director and NBI Professor Sune Toft and center co-director Thomas Greve, Professor at DTU and UCL. The main objective of the center is to investigate the period known as the

Cosmic Dawn In the fields of Big Bang theory and cosmology, reionization is the process that caused electrically neutral atoms in the universe to reionize after the lapse of the " dark ages". Reionization is the second of two major phase transitions of gas ...

(the transition period following the Cosmic Dark Ages), i.e. the

reionization In the fields of Big Bang theory and cosmology, reionization is the process that caused matter in the universe to reionize after the lapse of the " dark ages". Reionization is the second of two major phase transitions of gas in the universe (t ...

of the Universe and the formation of the first galaxies, through observations as well as through theory and simulations.

Goals

Research conducted at the center is focused on the specific period in the history of the Universe known as the ''Cosmic Dawn''. This largely unexplored period, 300-600 million years after the Big Bang is when the first stars, black holes, and galaxies are believed to have formed. Many of the observations used by the center originate from the

Atacama Large Millimeter Array The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is an astronomical interferometer of 66 radio telescopes in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, which observe electromagnetic radiation at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths. The ...

(ALMA), one of the more powerful telescopes in the world. In the future, the center aims to mainly use the James Webb Space Telescope and the Euclid Telescope of the European Space Agency (ESA). DAWN scientists were instrumental in the construction of three instruments (NIRSpec, MIRI and NIRISS) for the project, and will be involved in the analysis of the first data from the telescope.

Published research

As of April 18, 2020, DAWN authors have published at least 187 refereed papers garnering 1602 citations, which, among others, can be found at the NASA/ADS library. * Observation of inverse Compton emission from a long γ-ray burst: * Identification of strontium in the merger of two neutron stars: * Signatures of a jet cocoon in early spectra of a supernova associated with a γ-ray burst: * Stellar Velocity Dispersion of a Massive Quenching Galaxy at z = 4.01:

Medal of Honour

in 2010, the year of the 125th anniversary of the birth of Niels Bohr, the institute established the Niels Bohr Institute Medal of Honour. It is an annual award for "a particularly outstanding researcher who is working in the spirit of Niels Bohr: International cooperation and the exchange of knowledge".Professor Ignacio Cirac receives the Niels Bohr Institute Medal of Honour
Niels Bohr Institute, January 9, 2013 The medal is made by Danish sculptor Rikke Raben for the Niels Bohr Institute. On the front is a portrait of Niels Bohr, the atom sign and stars. The illustration on the back is inspired by a quote from Bohr: ''What is it that we human beings ultimately depend on? We depend on our words. We are suspended in language. Our task is to communicate experience and ideas to others''. On the back of the medal: ''Unity of Knowledge'' – the title of a lecture given by Bohr at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1954. ''Nosce te ipsum'' is

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

and means "know thyself". This quote originates from the

Oracle of Delphi Pythia (; grc, Πυθία ) was the name of the high priestess of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. She specifically served as its oracle and was known as the Oracle of Delphi. Her title was also historically glossed in English as the Pythoness ...

, in the Temple of

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...

in Greece. Recipients: * 2010:

Leo Kadanoff Leo Philip Kadanoff (January 14, 1937 – October 26, 2015) was an American physicist. He was a professor of physics (emeritus from 2004) at the University of Chicago and a former President of the American Physical Society (APS). He contributed t ...

* 2011: Andre Geim * 2012:

Juan Ignacio Cirac Sasturain Juan Ignacio Cirac Sasturain (born 11 October 1965), known professionally as Ignacio Cirac, is a Spanish physicist. He is one of the pioneers of the field of quantum computing and quantum information theory. He is the recipient of the 2006 Pri ...

* 2013:

Fabiola Gianotti Fabiola Gianotti (; born 29 October 1960) is an Italian experimental particle physicist who is the current and first woman Director-General at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Switzerland. Her first mandate began on 1 Ja ...

* 2014:

Glaciologist Glaciology (; ) is the scientific study of glaciers, or more generally ice and natural phenomena that involve ice. Glaciology is an interdisciplinary Earth science that integrates geophysics, geology, physical geography, geomorphology, clima ...

Jérôme Chappellaz * 2015: Astrophysicist

Brian Schmidt Brian Paul Schmidt (born 24 February 1967) is the Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University (ANU). He was previously a Distinguished Professor, Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and astrophysicist at the University's M ...

* 2016:

Gerard 't Hooft Gerardus (Gerard) 't Hooft (; born July 5, 1946) is a Dutch theoretical physicist and professor at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. He shared the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physics with his thesis advisor Martinus J. G. Veltman "for elucidating th ...

* 2017: * 2019:

David R. Nelson David R. Nelson (born May 9, 1951) is an American physicist, and Arthur K. Solomon Professor of Biophysics, at Harvard University. Education and research David R. Nelson is currently thArthur K. Solomon Professor of Biophysics and Professor o ...

* 2020: Paul J. Steinhardt * 2021:

Jun Ye Jun Ye (; born 1967) is a Chinese-American physicist at JILA, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the University of Colorado Boulder, working primarily in the field of atomic, molecular and optical physics. Education & career ...

JILA Fellow Jun Ye is awarded the 2021 Niels Bohr Institute Medal of Honor
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References

External links

Niels Bohr Institute (en)Niels Bohr Institutet (dk)

Dark Cosmology Centre (en)

Discovery Center (en)

External links

*
The Niels Bohr Institute

DTU Space
{{Authority control University of Copenhagen Research institutes in Denmark Physics institutes Niels Bohr Physics awards Educational institutions established in 1921 1921 establishments in Denmark Theoretical physics institutes

Overview

Research sections

Cosmic Dawn

Goals

Published research

Medal of Honour

See also

References

External links

External links