Tobias Robert Thalén Hon. FRSE (28 December 1827 – 27 July 1905) was a Swedish physicist. He was awarded the

Rumford Medal The Rumford Medal is an award bestowed by the Royal Society for "outstanding contributions in the field of physics". The award is named in honour of British scientist Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, who is noted for his works on thermody ...

in 1884 for his

spectroscopic Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets electromagnetic spectra. In narrower contexts, spectroscopy is the precise study of color as generalized from visible light to all bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. Spectrosc ...

researches. He was an expert on terrestrial magnetism and spectrum analysis. He gives his name to the crystalline mineral Thalenite. He worked closely with

Anders Ångström Anders is a male name in Scandinavian languages and Fering North Frisian, an equivalent of the Greek Andreas ("manly") and the English Andrew. It originated from Andres via metathesis. In Sweden, Anders has been one of the most common names fo ...

. Together they measured and recorded the spectral lines of many elements and created the science of spectral analysis.

Life

He was born in Koping on 28 December 1827. In 1849, he began studies at the

University of Upsala Uppsala University (UU) () is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. Initially founded in the 15th century, the university rose to s ...

. He gained a doctorate in physics (DPh) in 1854. In 1856, he began lecturing in astronomy. After some travelling scholarships to observatories in England, France and Germany, he was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1861. In 1869/1870, he was Professor of Physics at

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

Technical School. In 1873, he returned to Upsala as Professor of Mechanics and in 1874, became Professor of Physics there, replacing Angstrom. During this period, he received much criticism for favouring Angstrom's son,

Knut Knut ( Norwegian and Swedish), Knud ( Danish), or Knútur ( Icelandic) is a Scandinavian and German first name, of which the anglicised form is Canute. In Germany both "Knut" and "Knud" are used. In Spanish and Portuguese Canuto is used which ...

, as a star pupil. In 1886, he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

. He retired in 1896 and died in

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

on 27 July 1905.

Publications

*''Spectral analysis of a New earth'' (1879) *''On the Brilliant Rays of

Scandium Scandium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Sc and atomic number 21. It is a silvery-white metallic d-block, d-block element. Historically, it has been classified as a rare-earth element, together with yttrium and the lantha ...

'' (1880)

References

External links

Biography in Runeberg.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thalen, Robert 1827 births 1905 deaths Swedish physicists People from Köping, Sweden Academic staff of Uppsala University Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala