Niels Bohr

Physics

Niels Bohr was awarded the physics 1922 Nobel Prize "for his services in the investigation of the structure of atoms and of the radiation emanating from them.” Now called Bohr theory, Bohr, proposed a description of the atom based on the newly formed quantum theory of the time. His description quantized (made discrete) the energy levels that electrons could reside in. When an atom’s electron went from one energy level to another it had to do so in discrete, well-defined amounts. This explained the observed absorption and emission spectra.