Programme for the history of science conference
One hundred years of the Bohr atom
Tuesday 11 to Friday 14 June 2013

Tuesday 11 June

16:00-17:30

J.L. Heilbron, emeritus professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley

My courage is ablaze so wildly”: Niels Bohr en route to his quantum atom
PUBLIC LECTURE – REQUIRES PRIOR REGISTRATION

19:00

Registration and reception for speakers, with tapas

Wednesday 12 June

8:30

Registration (continued)

9:00

Kirsten Hastrup, President of the Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters

Welcome

9:15

Finn Aaserud, Niels Bohr Archive, Denmark

Introduction and practical matters

Session 1: Bohr and the atom (chair, Finn Aaserud)

9:30

Helge Kragh, University of Aarhus, Denmark

The many faces of the Bohr atom

10:00

Jaume Navarro, University of the Basque Country, Spain

Plum puddings and Bohr’s atom

10:30

Michael Eckert, Deutsches Museum, Germany

Extending Bohr: Sommerfelds’s early atomic theory, 1913—1916

11:00

Coffee

11:30

Michiyo Nakane, Kawasaki, Japan

Bohr’s introduction to action-angle variables in a 1918 paper

12:00

Robert Rynasiewicz, Johns Hopkins University, U.S.A.

The(?) Correspondence Principle

12:30

Martin Jähnert, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

The Correspondence Principle in Practice: Its Spread and Use in the Old Quantum Theory

13:00

Lunch

Session 2: Bohr, the atom and other physics (chair, Helge Kragh)

14:00

Anthony Duncan, University of Pittsburgh and Michel Janssen, University of Minnesota, U.S.A.

Stark contrasts between the Old and the New Quantum Theory

14:30

Luis Boya, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Arnold Sommerfeld and Niels Bohr: Comparison of the schools at Munich and Copenhagen at the time of the Old Quantum Theory

15:00

Enric Canals and Blai Pie Valls, University of Barcelona, Spain

Ehrenfest’s Adiabatic Hypothesis in Bohr’s quantum theory

15:30

Coffee

16:00

Michael Nauenberg, University of California, Santa Cruz

What happened to the Bohr-Sommerfeld elliptic orbits in Schrödinger’s wave mechanics?

16:30

Jeroen van Dongen, Utrecht University, Holland

Communicating the Heisenberg Relations: Niels Bohr and the forgotten Einstein—Rupp Experiments

17:00

Brigitte van Tiggelen, Lovain Catholic University, Belgium, and Annette Lykknes, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

Ida Noddack and the fission proposal: The actor’s perspective

17:30

End of session

17:45-19:30

Planning meeting for speakers, with smørrebrød

Thursday 13 June

Session 3: Philosophical and contemporary aspects (chair, Jeroen van Dongen)

9:00

Giora Hon, University of Haifa, Israel, and Bernard R. Goldstein, University of Pittsburgh, U.S.A.

Constitution, structure, system, and model: Imagining the atom – an early twentieth century story

9:30

Theodore Arabatzis and Despina Ioannidou, University of Athens, Greece

The role of models and analogies in the Bohr Atom

10:00

Henrik Zinkernagel, University of Granada, Spain

Are we living in a quantum world? Bohr and quantum fundamentalism

10:30

Coffee

11:00

N.D. Hari Dass, Chennai Mathematical Institute; CQIQC, IISc, India

The Superposition Principle in Quantum Mechanics – did the rock enter the foundation surreptitiously?

11:30

Shan Gao, University of Sydney, Australia and Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

How do electrons move in atoms? — From the Bohr model to quantum mechanics

12:00

Thiago Hartz and Olival Freire, Federal University of Bahia, Brazil

Uses and appropriations of Niels Bohr’s ideas about quantum field measurements, 1935—1965

12:30

Lunch

Session 4: National and institutional aspects (chair, Henrik Zinkernagel)

14:00

Shaul Katzir, Tel Aviv University, Israel

Manchester at war: Rutherford, Bohr, submarine detection and atomic spectra

14:30

Gábor Palló, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary

The Bohr model’s early reception in Hungary: Hevesy and Bohr

15:00

Peter Robertson, University of Melbourne, Australia

Birthplace of a new physics — the early history of the Niels Bohr Institute

15:30

Coffee

16:00

Karl Grandin, Royal Academy of Science, Sweden

Niels Bohr from a Swedish perspective

16:30

Henrik Knudsen, University of Aarhus, Denmark

Pursuing common cultural ideals: Niels Bohr, neutrality, and international scientific collaboration during the inter-war period

17:00

End of session

19:00

Conference dinner for speakers in Restaurant Nimb Terrasse, Tivoli Gardens

Friday 14 June

Session 5: Other aspects (chair, Henrik Knudsen)

9:00

Finn Aaserud, Niels Bohr Archive, Denmark

Love and physics: Margrethe Nørlund and Niels Bohr’s scientific creativity, 1910—1913

9:30

Ernst Peter Fischer, Heidelberg, Germany

A romantic understanding of atoms: Bohr’s success in a new perspective

10:00

Dieter Hoffmann, Max Planck Institute for History of Science, Germany

The relationship between Niels Bohr and Max Planck

10:30

Coffee

11:00

Arne Schirrmacher, Humboldt University, Germany

Models at an exhibition: The planetary atom on display in Europe and what this meant for science

11:30

Kristian H. Nielsen, University of Aarhus, Denmark

The Bohr Atom bound in cloth: Comparing popular books about atomic physics in Germany, Britain and Denmark, 1918 —1927

12:00

Conclusion

12:30

Lunch