Theodor Svedberg (30 August 1884 – 25 February 1971) was a Swedish chemist and Nobel laureate for his research on colloids and proteins using the

ultracentrifuge An ultracentrifuge is a centrifuge optimized for spinning a rotor at very high speeds, capable of generating acceleration as high as (approx. ). There are two kinds of ultracentrifuges, the preparative and the analytical ultracentrifuge. Both cla ...

. Svedberg was active at

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...

from the mid 1900s to late 1940s. While at Uppsala, Svedberg started as a

docent The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de con ...

before becoming the university's

physical chemistry Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistica ...

head in 1912. After leaving Uppsala in 1949, Svedberg was in charge of the Gustaf Werner Institute until 1967. Apart from his 1926 Nobel Prize, Svedberg was named a

Foreign Member of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematic ...

in 1944 and became part of the National Academy of Sciences in 1945.

Early life and education

Svedberg was born in

Valbo Valbo is a locality situated in Gävle Municipality, Gävleborg County, Sweden with 7,065 inhabitants in 2010. It is situated south-west of Gävle itself and could be considered a suburb of the city. Valbo is known for the large shopping mall Val ...

, Sweden on 30 August 1884. He was the son of Augusta Alstermark and Elias Svedberg. Growing up, Svedberg enjoyed botany and other branches of science. While in

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

, Svedberg conducted individual laboratorial research and performed

scientific demonstrations A scientific demonstration is a procedure carried out for the purposes of demonstrating scientific principles, rather than for hypothesis testing or knowledge gathering (although they may originally have been carried out for these purposes). Most ...

. For his post-secondary education, Svedberg entered a chemistry program at

in the early mid 1900s. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1905, his master's degree in 1907, and in 1908, he earned his Ph.D.

Career

While at Uppsala, Svedberg started his scientific career in 1905 as an assistant chemist with the university. After becoming a chemistry

for Uppsala in 1907, he became the university's

head in 1912. For his academic tenure, Svedberg remained with Upsala until 1949. During the early 1920s, he also temporarily taught for the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

. After leaving Uppsala, Svedberg led the Gustaf Werner Institute from 1949 to 1967.

Research

Svedberg's work with colloids supported the theories of

Brownian motion Brownian motion, or pedesis (from grc, πήδησις "leaping"), is the random motion of particles suspended in a medium (a liquid or a gas). This pattern of motion typically consists of random fluctuations in a particle's position insi ...

put forward by

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

and the Polish geophysicist Marian Smoluchowski. During this work, he developed the technique of

analytical ultracentrifugation Analytical ultracentrifugation is an analytical technique which combines an ultracentrifuge with optical monitoring systems. In an analytical ultracentrifuge (commonly abbreviated as AUC), a sample’s sedimentation profile is monitored in real tim ...

, and demonstrated its utility in distinguishing pure

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...

s one from another.

Awards and honours

The unit

svedberg A Svedberg unit or svedberg (symbol S, sometimes Sv) is a non- SI metric unit for sedimentation coefficients. The Svedberg unit offers a measure of a particle's size indirectly based on its sedimentation rate under acceleration (i.e. how fast a ...

(symbol S), a unit of time amounting to 10⁻¹³ s or 100 fs, is named after him, as well as

The Svedberg Laboratory The Svedberg Laboratory (TSL) is a university facility, based in Uppsala, Sweden. The activities at TSL are based around the particle accelerator ''Gustaf Werner cyclotron''. The main activity is proton therapy for the treatment of cancer, based ...

in Uppsala. Svedberg's candidacy for the Royal Society reads: After becoming a

in 1944, Svedberg was named to the National Academy of Sciences in 1945. From the 1910s to 1920s, Svedberg was awarded the Björkénska priset three times from Uppsala University for his contributions to science in Sweden. From the

Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memori ...

, Svedberg was given the

Franklin Medal The Franklin Medal was a science award presented from 1915 until 1997 by the Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the Am ...

in 1949 for his work with the ultracentrifuge.

Death and personal life

On 25 February 1971, Svedberg died in

Kopparberg Kopparberg is a locality and the seat of Ljusnarsberg Municipality, Örebro County, Sweden, with 4,200 inhabitants in 2015. It is famous for one of the most valuable postage stamps in the world, the Treskilling Yellow from 13 July 1857, Kopparb ...

, Sweden. He was married four times and had a total of twelve children. His widow died in 2019.

References

External links

* including the Nobel Lecture, 19 May 1927 ''The Ultracentrifuge'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Svedberg, Theodor 1884 births 1971 deaths People from Gävle Municipality Swedish chemists Nobel laureates in Chemistry Swedish Nobel laureates Uppsala University alumni Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Foreign Members of the Royal Society Foreign Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala