MEN of SCIENCE V

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Niels Bohr

A Danish physicist, he is one of the greatest scientists and thinkers in the history of mankind, founder of the modern theory of the atomic constitution of matter and promoter of the conception of human thinking. He was born in Copenhagen on Oct. 7, 1885. He received his training in physics at the University of Copenhagen, taking his doctoral degree in 1911. His first work, which won him a gold medal of the Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, was an experimental and theoretical investigation of the surface tension of the water (1907). This was followed by his doctoral on the electron theory.  Of metals, this remains a classic on the subject. In 1920 he assumed the directorship of the Institute of Theoretical Physics created for him within the University of Copenhagen, a position which he retained during his whole academic career. The brilliant success of his work on atomic structure earned him the Nobel Prize for physics in 1922. Bohr died on Nov. 18, 196, at the age of 77.

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James Clerk Maxwell

A British physicist and mathematician, generally acknowledged as the greatest theoretical physicist if the 19^th century. He was born on June 13, 1831, at Edinburgh, Scotland. Maxwell was educated first at the University of Edinburgh and later at Cambridge University. Maxwell was elected the first professor of experimental physics at the University of Cambridge in March 1871. Three years later he designed and equipped the now world-famous Cavendish Laboratory, the entire cost including the building was a gift of the seventh duke of Devonshire. He was professor at Aberdeen, London, and Cambridge. Besides his work on mathematics and several other topics, he is remembered especially for his theory of the electromagnetic field, which led to the most important “Maxwell’s equations.” Maxwell died on Nov. 5, 1879 at Cambridge.