Manne Siegbahn
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Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn
Swedish physicist (1886–1978)
Siegbahn, who was born at Örebro in Sweden, was educated at the University of Lund, where he studied astronomy, mathematics, physics, and chemistry, obtaining his doctorate in 1911. In 1914 he turned his attention to the new science of x-ray spectroscopy. It had already been established from x-ray spectra that there were two distinct ‘shells’ of electrons within atoms, each giving rise to groups of spectral lines, labeled ‘K’ and ‘L’. In 1916 Siegbahn discovered a third, or ‘M’, series. (More were to be found later in heavier elements.)
Through successive refinement of his x-ray equipment and technique, Siegbahn was able to achieve a significant increase in the accuracy of his determinations of spectral lines. This allowed him to make corrections to Bragg's equation for x-ray diffraction to allow for the finer details of crystal diffraction. Besides working with crystals, he performed x-ray spectroscopy at longer wavelengths using gratings. Here again his accurate measurements revealed discrepancies that were later shown to result from inaccuracies in the value assumed for the electronic charge.
In 1920 Siegbahn was made professor and head of the physics department at the University of Lund and in 1923 he moved to the University of Uppsala to become chairman of the physics department. In 1924 he received the Nobel Prize for physics, cited for “his discoveries and research in the field of x-ray spectroscopy,” and the following year saw publication of his influential book Spectroscopy of X-rays (1925). In the same year Siegbahn and his colleagues showed that x-rays are refracted as they pass through prisms, in the same way as light.
When, in 1937, the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences created the Nobel Institute of Physics at Stockholm, Siegbahn was appointed its first director. In the same year he became professor of physics at the University of Stockholm, retaining this post until his retirement in 1964. He was responsible for the building of accelerators, laboratory spectrometers, and other equipment at the Nobel Institute.
Siegbahn, Karl Manne Georg, 1886-1978, Swedish physicist. In 1913, he began a series of experiments that led to the discovery of the M series of X rays and demonstrated the shell arrangement of electrons within the atom. In the process, he developed equipment and techniques that established X-ray spectroscopy as a useful tool. For that work, he was awarded the 1924 Nobel Prize for Physics. He later served (1937-64) as the director of the Nobel Institute of Physics in Stockholm.
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Manne Siegbahn
| Manne Siegbahn | |
|---|---|
 Karl Manne Siegbahn in 1924 |
|
| Born | Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn 3 December 1886 Örebro, Sweden |
| Died | 26 September 1978 (aged 91) Stockholm, Sweden |
| Nationality | Swedish |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | University of Lund University of Uppsala University of Stockholm |
| Alma mater | University of Lund |
| Known for | X-ray spectroscopy |
| Notable awards | Nobel Prize for Physics (1924) |
|
Notes
He is the father of Nobel laureate Kai Siegbahn. |
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Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn FRS[1] (3 December 1886 – 26 September 1978)[2] was a Swedish physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1924 "for his discoveries and research in the field of X-ray spectroscopy".[3][4]
Siegbahn was born in Örebro, Sweden. He obtained his Ph.D. at the Lund University in 1911, his thesis was titled Magnetische Feldmessungen (magnetic field measurements). He was acting professor for Johannes Rydberg when his health was failing, and succeeded him as full professor in 1920.
Following his Ph.D., he started research on X-ray spectroscopy. This work continued when he moved to the University of Uppsala in 1923. He developed improved experimental apparatus which allowed him to make very accurate measurements of the X-ray wavelengths produced by atoms of different elements. He developed a convention for naming the different spectral lines that are characteristic to elements in X-ray spectroscopy, the Siegbahn notation. Siegbahn's precision measurements drove many developments in quantum theory and atomic physics.[5]
In 1937, Siegbahn was appointed Director of the Physics Department of the Nobel Institute of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. In 1988 this was renamed the Manne Siegbahn Institute (MSI).[6] The institute research groups have been reorganized since, but the name lives on in the Manne Siegbahn Laboratory hosted by Stockholm University.
Siegbahn married Karin Högbom 1914. They had two children: Bo Siegbahn (1915–2008), a diplomat and politician, and Kai Siegbahn (1918–2007), a physicist, who also received the Nobel Prize in Physics, in 1981, for his contribution to the development of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.
He won the Hughes Medal 1934 and Rumford Medal 1940. In 1944 he patented the Siegbahn pump.
References
- ^ Atterling, H. (1991). "Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn. 3 December 1886-24 September 1978". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 37: 428–426. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1991.0022.
- ^ Biography from the Nobel foundation website
- ^ Nobel prize citation
- ^ Shampo, M. A.; Kyle, R. A. (1998). "Manne Siegbahn--Nobel Prize for x-ray spectroscopy". Mayo Clinic proceedings. Mayo Clinic 73 (3): 249. PMID 9511784.
- ^ Nobel prize presentation speech
- ^ "History". http://www.msl.se/MSL_files/history.htm. Retrieved 25 May 2012.
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