Frederick Soddy died in Brighton, Sussex, England. He left behind a number of significant scientific works, including Radioactivity (1904), The Interpretation of Radium (1909), The Chemistry of the Radioactive Elements (1912–1914), The Interpretation of the Atom (1932), The Story of Atomic Energy (1949) and Atomic Transmutation (1953).
Niels Bohr (1885–1962)
1922 Physics
For his services in the investigation of the structure of atoms and of the radiation emanating from them.
Niels Henrik David Bohr’s father was an eminent physiologist, and his mother was born into a family long connected to higher education. With his younger brother, Harald, who would later become a professor in mathematics, Niels grew up in an atmosphere that allowed him to develop his genius, thanks mostly to his parents’ efforts and influence.
He studied at the University of Copenhagen and was a student of the well-known physicist Christien Christiansen, receiving his doctorate degree in 1911. The first steps in his career were taken while he was still a student. Knowing that the Academy of Sciences in Copenhagen had announced a prize for whoever solved a specific scientific problem, Bohr started experimental research into superficial tension using oscillating fluid jets. He worked in his father’s laboratory and won the Academy’s gold medal prize for his work.
After a stay in Cambridge, England, Bohr started working in Professor Ernest Rutherford’s laboratory in Manchester, where he studied radioactive phenomena. While there, he wrote a theoretical work on the absorption of alpha rays and started studying the structure of atoms as presented in Rutherford’s model. Bohr introduced concepts to quantum theory, formulated by Max Planck, and managed to create a model of atomic structure that, with later adjustments, still serves to interpret the physical and chemical properties of elements.
Between 1913 and 1914, Bohr was a lecturer in physics at the University of Copenhagen, a position he also held at Victoria University in Manchester between 1914 and 1916. Following this, he worked as a professor of theoretical physics at the University of Copenhagen and from 1920 onward he was head of the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the same institution. Bohr wrote numerous scientific essays between 1933 and 1962, and he balanced his work with the presidency of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and other institutions.
He received honorary doctorates throughout his life from more than 30 universities. The 1922 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Bohr in recognition of his work on atomic structure and contributions to solving problems in the field of quantum physics, particularly in the development of the concept of complimentarily.
During the Nazi occupation of Denmark, Bohr escaped to Sweden then spent the last two years of World War II in England and the United States, where he was associated with the Atomic Energy Project. The last years of his life were dedicated to the peaceful application of atomic physics and problems emerging from the development of atomic weapons.
Niels Bohr was married in 1912 to Margrethe Nørlund, and the couple had six sons.
Fridjtof Nansen (1861–1930)
1922 Peace
For activities in favor of peace and his role in the cause of refugees from war.
Although it was as a peace worker that Fridjtof Nansen earned his place in history, he was also a prominent naturalist and well known for his adventurous lifestyle. The son of a prosperous lawyer, he was born in the suburbs of Christiania (later renamed Oslo), in present-day Norway. He inherited strong moral principles from his father, but it was his mother, a strong-minded, athletic woman, who instilled in him a love of outdoor living and sports. As an adult, he was capable of impressive feats, including skiing more than 50 miles (80 km) in a day.
While he was a student, Nansen distinguished himself in the natural sciences and art. In 1881 he entered the University of Oslo to study zoology, hoping to prepare for a future that united all his interests. For the next 15 years he would, indeed, combine his athletic prowess, scientific interests, taste for adventure and drawing skills into a series of achievements that would bring him international fame.
In 1882 he boarded the ship Viking and sailed to the east coast of Greenland. Years later, his notes from the voyage were made into a book. But what stayed with him from that journey was a passion for the world of ice and sea. Among other feats and scientific studies, he crossed Greenland from end to end and was, at the time, the man to get closest to the North Pole.
In 1905 he interrupted his work to apply himself to the cause of separating Norway from Sweden. He returned to his scientific work, but with the outbreak of World War I he fully committed himself to international politics. Between 1917 and 1918, he headed a Norwegian mission to Washington and negotiated a relaxation of the blockade, which made maritime transport of essential food to his country possible. In 1919, he represented Norwegian interests in the constitution of the League of Nations and played an important role in the preparation of the Treaty of Versailles, contributing mostly to the recognition of smaller countries’ rights. He was the Norwegian delegate to the League until his death.
In the spring of 1920 Nansen led the process to repatriate prisoners of war, mostly being held in Russia. Despite a lack of funds and other difficulties, he managed to repatriate approximately 450,000 men in a year and a half. In 1921 he was nominated to direct the League of Nation’s High Commission for Refugees, and he created standards of procedure that are still followed to this day. That same year he led a food relief program for the millions of starving poor. It is estimated that Nasen’s program contributed to saving millions of people from starvation. His work with Greek and Armenian refugees was also important.
Fridjtof Nansen died on May 13, 1930. The funeral was delayed for four days so that he could be buried on the 17th, the day commemorating Norwegian independence.
Frederick Banting (1891–1941)
1923 Physiology or Medicine
For the discovery of insulin.
The discovery of how to isolate insulin, the hormone that allows diabetic patients to combat excessive glucose in their blood, brought the Canadian Frederick Grant Banting and John James Richard Macleod the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
It was Banting, along with his assistant Charles H. Best, who was the first person to successfully extract insulin from the pancreas. The Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, which is responsible for attributing the Nobel Prize, decided, at Banting’s suggestion, to also recognize Macleod, who had been receptive to the idea and offered his facilities for research.
Born in Alliston, Ontario, Canada, Frederick Banting was the youngest of five children. He completed his high school studies in his hometown then moved to Toronto. Although he initially enrolled in theology, Banting soon transferred to medicine. He graduated in 1916 and immediately enlisted in the Canadian Army Medical Corps and was sent to France. He was wounded during the battle of Cambrai, and later received the Military Cross for heroism under fire.
After the war he served as a doctor in several communities until he completed his MD in 1922. By this time he had already taken an interest in diabetes and related his ideas to a receptive John Macleod, then a professor of physiology at the University of Toronto.