Hannes Alfven Biography

Born asHannes Olof Gösta Alfvén
Known asHannes Alfvén
Occup.Scientist
FromSweden
BornMay 30, 1908
Norrköping, Sweden
DiedApril 2, 1995
Djursholm, Sweden
Aged86 years
Early Life and Education
Hannes Olof Gösta Alfvén was born upon May 30, 1908, in Norrköping, Sweden. He was raised in a family that valued education, which sustained his early interest in science and technology. Alfvén pursued his college at the University of Uppsala, where he studied physics and mathematics, earning his Ph.D. in 1934 with an argumentation on the dielectric continuous in the Earth's atmosphere.

Early Career and Scientific Contributions
In the early phases of his career, Alfvén worked as an engineer and researcher. He initially began as an electrical engineer, where he used his theoretical knowledge to useful issues, which later on had a considerable impact on his clinical examinations. Throughout this duration, Alfvén established an interest in magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), a field that studies the habits of electrically performing fluids like plasmas in electromagnetic fields.

Magnetohydrodynamics and Space Physics
Alfvén's groundbreaking work in magnetohydrodynamics earned him international recognition. Among his noteworthy contributions was the development of the principle of Alfvén waves, which are low-frequency oscillations of the ionized gases in Earth's magnetosphere and other plasma environments. His theories offered brand-new insights into the behavior of cosmic plasma and laid the groundwork for modern space physics and plasma astrophysics, affecting space weather condition forecasting.

Nobel Prize and Later Career
In 1970, Hannes Alfvén was granted the Nobel Prize in Physics for his essential work and discoveries in magnetohydrodynamics. His acknowledgment marked the very first time this field gained traditional scientific attention. Throughout his profession, Alfvén worked together with a number of prominent scientists and scientists, including his colleagues in the Swedish area research study neighborhood.

Personal Life and Legacy
Hannes Alfvén was wed to Kerstin Erikson, with whom he had 5 kids. Beyond his scientific pursuits, he was understood for his thoughts on science policy and education, typically advocating for the accountable use of technology and stressing the importance of a broad-based scientific education.

Alfvén's legacy is not just preserved through his prolific scientific contributions but likewise through organizations such as the Alfvén Laboratory at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, which continues research study in fields he pioneered. He passed away on April 2, 1995, in Djursholm, Sweden, leaving an abundant tradition in the field of plasma physics and area science.

Influence and Recognition
Hannes Alfvén's work has actually had a lasting impact on the clinical community. His theories substantially affected the understanding of cosmic phenomena, including solar flares, auroras, and the dynamics of galaxies. In addition to the Nobel Prize, his recognized career made him subscriptions and honors from numerous clinical institutions worldwide, reflecting his status as a pioneer in his field.

Through his ingenious ideas and contributions, Hannes Alfvén remains a main figure in the history of space science and astrophysics, inspiring generations of scientists to explore the secrets of the universe.

Our collection contains 6 quotes who is written / told by Hannes.
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6 Famous quotes by Hannes Alfven

Small: To try to write a grand cosmical drama leads necessarily to myth. To try to let knowledge substitute ig
"To try to write a grand cosmical drama leads necessarily to myth. To try to let knowledge substitute ignorance in increasingly larger regions of space and time is science"
Small: We should remember that there was once a discipline called natural philosophy. Unfortunately, this disc
"We should remember that there was once a discipline called natural philosophy. Unfortunately, this discipline seems not to exist today. It has been renamed science, but science of today is in danger of losing much of the natural philosophy aspect"
Small: I have always believed that astrophysics should be the extrapolation of laboratory physics, that we mus
"I have always believed that astrophysics should be the extrapolation of laboratory physics, that we must begin from the present universe and work our way backward to progressively more remote and uncertain epochs"
Small: We have to learn again that science without contact with experiments is an enterprise which is likely t
"We have to learn again that science without contact with experiments is an enterprise which is likely to go completely astray into imaginary conjecture"
Small: There is no rational reason to doubt that the universe has existed indefinitely, for an infinite time.
"There is no rational reason to doubt that the universe has existed indefinitely, for an infinite time. It is only myth that attempts to say how the universe came to be, either four thousand or twenty billion years ago"
Small: Most people today still believe, perhaps unconsciously, in the heliocentric universe every newspaper in
"Most people today still believe, perhaps unconsciously, in the heliocentric universe every newspaper in the land has a section on astrology, yet few have anything at all on astronomy"