20 April 1918, Lund (Sweden) - 20 July 2007, Ängelholm (Sweden)
Kai Manne Börje Siegbahn, son of another Nobel laureate in physics (1924), entered the University of Uppsala (Sweden) in 1936 to study physics, chemistry, and mathematics. He graduated in 1942.
In 1944 he received his PhD from Stockholm University (Sweden) and started working at the Nobel Institute of Physics, now the Manne Siegbahn Institute of Physics.
From 1951 to 1954, he was a professor at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. He later became head and chair of the physics department at the University of Uppsala, which his father had occupied until 1937.
He began his professional career with the study of atomic and molecular physics, developing studies on plasma and electron optics. Like his father, he then turned to spectroscopy and developed chemical analysis techniques on the high-resolution spectroscopic laser he created.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Siegbahn et al. developed an important method based on the well-known ‘photoelectric effect’. The decisive contribution was the invention of an electron spectrometer with a hitherto unattainable level of precision that made it possible to assign electrons from a material released by X-rays to their place of origin (atom type and layer). The result of the chemical analysis measurement of the composition of the tested material, from which the name ESCA (Electron Spectroscopy for Chemical Analysis) is derived.
In 1956, he founded the journal "Nuclear Instruments and Method" and, as editor, exerted a strong influence on its clear and scientific orientation. In doing so, he created a stable network of partners and an international reputation beyond the borders of Sweden.
In 1965 he published the book "Spectroscopy of alpha, beta, and gamma rays" with articles and expert contributions by 77 renowned experts in radiation spectroscopy.
In 1981, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with two other physicists, Nicolaas Bloembergen and Arthur Leonard Schawlow for their work on spectroscopy and, in particular for Siegbahn, for his ‘contributions to the development of high-resolution laser spectroscopy’.
He was a member of many associations including the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the European Academy. He was also president of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), which decides the names of the elements of the periodic table, among other things.
In addition, he was awarded many different prizes: Lindblom Prize (1945), Björkén Prize (1955), Celsius Medal (1962), Sixteenth Heyman Prize (1971), Harrison Howe Prize (1973), Maurice F. Hasler Prize (1975). Hasler Award (1975). Chandler-Medaille Prize (1976), Bjorkén Prize (1977), Torbern Bergman Medal (1979), and Pittsburgh Spectroscopy Prize (1982).
To honour this great scientist, an asteroid is named after him.
