Niels Bohr won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922.
The Nobel Foundation awarded Bohr the prize for his services in the investigation of the structure of atoms and the radiation that emanates from them. His work helped explain why atoms emit light at specific wavelengths and provided an important bridge between classical physics and the emerging theory of quantum mechanics.
Bohr’s prize followed his influential 1913 model of the atom. The model described electrons as occupying discrete energy levels around the nucleus, with transitions between those levels producing or absorbing radiation. Although modern quantum mechanics later replaced parts of the model, its ideas were foundational.
The year 1922 is sometimes confused with 1913, the year Bohr introduced his atomic model, or with 1975, when his son Aage Bohr won the physics prize. Bohr received his award at the Nobel ceremony in Stockholm in December 1922. He remained a central figure in twentieth-century physics and later contributed to debates about how quantum theory should be interpreted.