UNESCO Niels Bohr Medal
The UNESCO Niels Bohr Medal was minted in 1985 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Danish nuclear physicist Niels Bohr.
The medal
In 1985, the 100th anniversary of the birth of Niels Bohr, UNESCO minted a gold medal to commemorate the father of quantum physics and one of the most eminent scientists of the 20th century. Sculpted by Siv Holme-Muse of Sweden, the medal bears the profile of Bohr while the rear depicts his drawing of electrons orbiting around an atomic structure, his formula E2-E1=hy2 representing electrons in relation to hydrogen, and his signature. It also bears the inscription: Contraria sunt complementa (Opposites are complementary), Bohr's principle of complementarity.[1]
2013 awards
Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia is one of the three celebrities who were awarded the medal for 2013 at an event in honour of the 100th anniversary of Bohr's atomic model. The two others are the German particle physicist and director of CERN Rolf-Dieter Heuer and the French physicist Alain Aspect, noted for his work on quantum entanglement. The medals were presented at the University of Copenhagen conference on "An Open World" on 5 December 2013 by Princess Marie of Denmark.[2] In connection with the ceremony, Wales participated in the session "The Internet: A Global Infrastructure of Openness?" with a presentation titled "Wikipedia, Democracy and the Internet".[3][4]
Recipients
Recipients of the UNESCO gold medal include:[5]
- Vitaly Ginzburg, 1998
- Walter Kohn, 1998
- Martin Rees, 2005
- Herwig Schopper, 2005
- Peter Zoller, 2005
- John Pendry, 2010
- Timothy Berners-Lee, 2010
- Kip S. Thorne, 2010
- Alain Aspect, 2013
- Rolf-Dieter Heuer, 2013
- Jimmy Wales, 2013
See also
References
- ↑ "Niels Bohr (1885-1962)". UNESCO. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
- ↑ Cian O'Luanaigh (5 December 2013). "UNESCO awards Niels Bohr Gold Medal to CERN". CERN. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
- ↑ "An Open World" (PDF). University of Copenhagen. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
- ↑ "Niels Bohr Conference: Free exchange of information can avert technological threats". University of Copenhagen. 24 October 2013. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
- ↑ "UNESCO's Niels Bohr Gold Medal awarded to prominent physicists". University of Copenhagen. Retrieved 11 December 2013.