Niels Bohr as Fund Raiser

Abstract

Nuclear physics came of age as a discipline in the 1930s. In 1932, the “miraculous year” of nuclear physics, physicists discovered two new particles, the neutron and the positron, developed revolutionary particle-accelerator equipment and split nuclei for the first time by manmade machines. The study of the nucleus soon developed into an independent field, becoming the central area of research in theoretical physics. During the mid-1930s, Niels Bohr's Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Copenhagen experienced a successful transition to the new field of investigation, consolidating its position as an international Mecca for theoretical physics research. In early 1936 Bohr proposed his revolutionary compound-nucleus model, and in late 1938 the Bohr institute's cyclotron, a major device for provoking nuclear reactions, was the first such apparatus to go into operation in Europe. Since then, Bohr's institute has been an international leader in theoretical nuclear physics research.