Helge Kragh

Last updated

Helge Kragh
Helge Kragh 2019 cropped.JPG
Helge Kragh, 2019
Born (1944-02-13) 13 February 1944 (age 80)
NationalityDanish
Alma mater University of Copenhagen, Roskilde University
Known for History of cosmology, relativity, quantum mechanics
Awards Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics (2019)
Scientific career
Fields Science historian
Institutions Aarhus University, Denmark

Helge Stjernholm Kragh (born February 13, 1944) is a Danish historian of science who focuses on the development of 19th century physics, chemistry, and astronomy. [1] His published work includes biographies of Paul Dirac, Julius Thomsen and Ludvig Lorenz, and The Oxford Handbook of the History of Modern Cosmology (2019) which he co-edited with Malcolm Longair. [1]

Contents

Biography

Kragh studied physics and chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, graduating with a degree in 1970. He earned his Ph.D. in physics in 1981 at the University of Roskilde. He received a second doctorate, in philosophy, from the University of Aarhus in 2007. [2]

Kragh was an associate professor of history of science at Cornell University from 1987 to 1989, a professor at the University of Oslo from 1995 to 1997, and a professor at Aarhus University in Denmark from 1997 to 2015. [2]

As of 2015 he retired, becoming emeritus professor at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen. [2] He is also a professor emeritus at the Centre for Science Studies of Aarhus University. [3]

Kragh's areas of study are the history of physics from the mid-19th century onward, the history of astronomy, the history of cosmology and the history of chemistry. He is known for his work on the history of the periodic system, early quantum atomic models, speculative cosmology and the northern lights. [3]

Honors and awards

Selected writings

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aage Bohr</span> Danish physicist (1922–2009)

Aage Niels Bohr 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 particle motion in atomic nuclei and the development of the theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus based on this connection". His father was Niels Bohr.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Niels Bohr</span> Danish physicist (1885–1962)

Niels Henrik David Bohr 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. Bohr was also a philosopher and a promoter of scientific research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Dirac</span> British theoretical physicist (1902–1984)

Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac was an English mathematical and theoretical physicist who is considered to be one of the founders of quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics. He is credited with laying the foundations of quantum field theory. He was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, a professor of physics at Florida State University and the University of Miami, and a 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics recipient.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Niels Bohr Institute</span> Scientific research institute

The Niels Bohr Institute is a research institute of the University of Copenhagen. The research of the institute spans astronomy, geophysics, nanotechnology, particle physics, quantum mechanics, and biophysics.

In physics, a correspondence principle is any one of several premises or assertions about the relationship between classical and quantum mechanics. The physicist Niels Bohr coined the term in 1920 during the early development of quantum theory; he used it to explain how quantized classical orbitals connect to quantum radiation. Modern sources often use the term for the idea that the behavior of systems described by quantum theory reproduces classical physics in the limit of large quantum numbers: for large orbits and for large energies, quantum calculations must agree with classical calculations. A "generalized" correspondence principle refers to the requirement for a broad set of connections between any old and new theory.

Michael John Disney is an astrophysicist. He discovered the optical component of the Crab Pulsar in 1969 with John Cocke, which was the first optical pulsar ever observed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abraham Pais</span> Dutch-American physicist and science historian

Abraham Pais was a Dutch-American physicist and science historian. Pais earned his Ph.D. from University of Utrecht just prior to a Nazi ban on Jewish participation in Dutch universities during World War II. When the Nazis began the forced relocation of Dutch Jews, he went into hiding, but was later arrested and saved only by the end of the war. He then served as an assistant to Niels Bohr in Denmark and was later a colleague of Albert Einstein at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Pais wrote books documenting the lives of these two great physicists and the contributions they and others made to modern physics. He was a physics professor at Rockefeller University until his retirement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John D. Barrow</span> British scientist

John David Barrow was an English cosmologist, theoretical physicist, and mathematician. He served as Gresham Professor of Geometry at Gresham College from 2008 to 2011. Barrow was also a writer of popular science and an amateur playwright.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geoffrey Burbidge</span> British astronomer

Geoffrey Ronald Burbidge (24 September 1925 – 26 January 2010) was an English astronomy professor and theoretical astrophysicist, most recently at the University of California, San Diego. He was married to astrophysicist Margaret Burbidge and was the second author of the influential B2FH paper which she led.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert H. Dicke</span> American astronomer and physicist (1916–1997)

Robert Henry Dicke was an American astronomer and physicist who made important contributions to the fields of astrophysics, atomic physics, cosmology and gravity. He was the Albert Einstein Professor in Science at Princeton University (1975–1984).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Peebles</span> Canadian-American astrophysicist and cosmologist

Phillip James Edwin Peebles is a Canadian-American astrophysicist, astronomer, and theoretical cosmologist who is currently the Albert Einstein Professor in Science, emeritus, at Princeton University. He is widely regarded as one of the world's leading theoretical cosmologists in the period since 1970, with major theoretical contributions to primordial nucleosynthesis, dark matter, the cosmic microwave background, and structure formation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malcolm Longair</span> British physicist

Malcolm Sim Longair is a British physicist. From 1991 to 2008 he was the Jacksonian Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. Since 2016 he has been Editor-in-Chief of the Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David M. Dennison</span>

David Mathias Dennison was an American physicist who made contributions to quantum mechanics, spectroscopy, and the physics of molecular structure.

In chemistry and atomic physics, an electron shell may be thought of as an orbit that electrons follow around an atom's nucleus. The closest shell to the nucleus is called the "1 shell" (also called the "K shell"), followed by the "2 shell" (or "L shell"), then the "3 shell" (or "M shell"), and so on farther and farther from the nucleus. The shells correspond to the principal quantum numbers (n = 1, 2, 3, 4 ...) or are labeled alphabetically with the letters used in X-ray notation (K, L, M, ...). A useful guide when understanding electron shells in atoms is to note that each row on the conventional periodic table of elements represents an electron shell.

David Favrholdt was a Danish philosopher, educated with M.A.s in psychology and philosophy and later Dr. Phil. from Copenhagen University. He is one of few Danes to be included in the International Who's Who.

The Roy G. Neville Prize in Bibliography or Biography is a biennial award given by the Science History Institute to recognize a biographical work in the field of chemistry or molecular science. The Roy G. Neville Prize was established in 2006 and named to honor scientist and book collector Roy G. Neville. Neville founded Engineering and Technical Consultants, Redwood City, California, in 1973. He also assembled one of the world's largest collections of rare books in the field of science and technology. The Neville collection, including over 6,000 titles from the late 15th century to the early 20th century, was acquired by the Chemical Heritage Foundation in 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Licia Verde</span> Italian cosmologist and theoretical physicist (born 1971)

Licia Verde is an Italian cosmologist and theoretical physicist and currently ICREA Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Barcelona. Her research interests include large-scale structure, dark matter, dark energy, inflation and the cosmic microwave background.

Klaus Mølmer is a Danish physicist who is currently a professor at the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen. From 2000 to 2022, he was a professor of physics at the University of Aarhus.

Irene Tamborra is an Italian particle astrophysicist, specializing in the areas of neutrino astrophysics and cosmology as well as multi-messenger astronomy. She is professor of particle astrophysics at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen.

Nancy Elizabeth Weber Boggess was an astrophysicist known for her work in developing telescopes that were used in space by NASA.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Roy G. Neville Prize in Bibliography or Biography". Science History Institute. Retrieved February 1, 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics: Recipient Helge Kragh Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen". APS Physics. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  3. 1 2 "Academic staff". Centre for Science Studies Department of Mathematics Aarhus University. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  4. "Roy G. Neville Prize awarded to Helge Kragh". Niels Bohr Archive. September 14, 2019. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  5. "Professor Emeritus Helge Kragh receives the prestigeous [sic] Abraham Pais Prize for History of Physics 2019". Niels Bohr Institute. May 29, 2019. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  6. "Website of the ESHS" . Retrieved January 24, 2016.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Rocha, Gustavo Rodrigues; Kragh, Helge (June 28, 2017). "Interview: Helge Kragh". Transversal: International Journal for the Historiography of Science (2): 233. doi: 10.24117/2526-2270.2017.i2.20 . Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  8. "Helge Kragh". International Academy of the History of Science. Retrieved January 24, 2016.
  9. "Members". Videnskabernes Selskab (The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. Retrieved January 24, 2016.
  10. Kragh, H., "Venus has no moon, yet this moon was discovered in the 1700s", ScienceNordic, June 3, 2020.