Rolf Wideröe
Encyclopedia
Rolf Widerøe was a Norwegian
particle physicist
who was the originator of many particle acceleration concepts, including the resonance accelerator, the betatron
accelerator.
in 1902, the son of a mercantile agent. His younger brother Viggo became the founder of the Norwegian airline Widerøe
. By 16, he was interested in nitrogen atoms and in 1920 graduated from Halling Gymnasium. Realizing that for nuclear advances to occur electrical engineering needed to be improved, thus he decided to study electrical engineering in Oslo, and later physics
in Karlsruhe
, Germany
.
in the United States, and used as the basis for his creation of the cyclotron
.
beginning in 1952, lectured at ETH Zurich in 1953, and collaborated at DESY
in 1959 in Hamburg.
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
particle physicist
Particle physics
Particle physics is a branch of physics that studies the existence and interactions of particles that are the constituents of what is usually referred to as matter or radiation. In current understanding, particles are excitations of quantum fields and interact following their dynamics...
who was the originator of many particle acceleration concepts, including the resonance accelerator, the betatron
Betatron
A betatron is a cyclotron developed by Donald Kerst at the University of Illinois in 1940 to accelerate electrons, but the concepts ultimately originate from Rolf Widerøe and previous development occurred in Germany through Max Steenbeck in the 1930s. The betatron is essentially a transformer with...
accelerator.
Early life
Widerøe was born in OsloOslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
in 1902, the son of a mercantile agent. His younger brother Viggo became the founder of the Norwegian airline Widerøe
Widerøe
Widerøe's Flyveselskap AS, trading as Widerøe, is a regional airline in Norway and part of the SAS Group. It operates a fleet of 34 Bombardier Dash 8 aircraft , serving 41 domestic and 6 international destinations...
. By 16, he was interested in nitrogen atoms and in 1920 graduated from Halling Gymnasium. Realizing that for nuclear advances to occur electrical engineering needed to be improved, thus he decided to study electrical engineering in Oslo, and later physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
in Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
Betatron accelerator concept
There he conceived the concept of magnetic induction to accelerate electrons, which became the basis of what would be known as betatron. This idea was to use a vortex field surrounding a magnetic field to accelerate electrons in a tube.Return to Germany
In 1924, he returned to Norway, but went back to Germany in 1925. There he studied at the Technical University at Aachen, where he proposed a thesis in 1927 for an experimental betatron accelerator, incorporating the work of Swedish scientist Gustav Ising in 1924, which was not successful. This thesis however was studied by Ernest LawrenceErnest Lawrence
Ernest Orlando Lawrence was an American physicist and Nobel Laureate, known for his invention, utilization, and improvement of the cyclotron atom-smasher beginning in 1929, based on his studies of the works of Rolf Widerøe, and his later work in uranium-isotope separation for the Manhattan Project...
in the United States, and used as the basis for his creation of the cyclotron
Cyclotron
In technology, a cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator. In physics, the cyclotron frequency or gyrofrequency is the frequency of a charged particle moving perpendicularly to the direction of a uniform magnetic field, i.e. a magnetic field of constant magnitude and direction...
.
Resonance accelerator
From his betatron experiment, he developed further ideas of particle acceleration without the necessity of high voltage. The method was resonating particles with a radiofrequency electric field to add energy to each traversal of the field. This experiment was successful and published in 1928, and became the progenitor of all high-energy particle accelerators. Again, Ernest Lawrence would use this method in constructing his cyclotron in 1929.Nazi collaboration
Widerøe began collaborating with the Nazi German government following their election in Germany, where in 1943 he introduced the concept of colliding particles head-on to increase interaction energy and a storage ring device. His Norwegian citizenship was ultimately revoked for working with the Nazi government.Later years
In 1946 he filed a patent in Norway for an accelerator based on synchronous acceleration. He would go on to publish over 180 papers in scientific and engineering journals, and filed over 200 patent applications over his lifetime. In his later life he devoted much time to medicinal technology, focusing on cancer treatment, including developing megavolt radiation therapy technologies. He would collaborate with CERNCERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research , known as CERN , is an international organization whose purpose is to operate the world's largest particle physics laboratory, which is situated in the northwest suburbs of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border...
beginning in 1952, lectured at ETH Zurich in 1953, and collaborated at DESY
DESY
The DESY is the biggest German research center for particle physics, with sites in Hamburg and Zeuthen....
in 1959 in Hamburg.
Honors
- Doctorate Honoris Causa-RWTH Aachen (1962)
- Honorary Medical Doctorate-Zurich University (1964)
- Röntgen Medal (1969)
- Röntgen prize (1972)
- JRC gold medal (1973)
- Robert R. Wilson Prize of APS (1992)
Memberships
- Norwegian Academy of Science
- American Physical SocietyAmerican Physical SocietyThe American Physical Society is the world's second largest organization of physicists, behind the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. The Society publishes more than a dozen scientific journals, including the world renowned Physical Review and Physical Review Letters, and organizes more than 20...
- American Radium Society
- British Institute of Radiology
- Deutsche Röntgengesellschaft
- European Society for Radiation Therapy ESTRO
- European Society of Physics
- Naturforschende Gesellschaft
- Norwegian Society of Radiology
- Norwegian Society of Physics
- Schweizerische Physikalische Gesellschaft
- Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Radiobiologie
- Scandinavian Society for Medical Physics
- Society of Nuclear MedicineSociety of Nuclear MedicineThe Society of Nuclear Medicine, or SNM, based in Reston, Virginia, is a nonprofit organization founded in 1954. There are 17,000 members: physicians, pharmacists, physicists and scientists, except for a separate section of 10,000 technologists...