Aage Bohr

Bohr's fourth son, who accompanied him to Los Alamos and became his assistant before going on to his own career in theoretical physics.

Christian Bohr

Bohr's father, who was also a famous physiologist and Copenhagen professor.

Ellen Bohr

Bohr's mother.

Harald Bohr

A beloved brother of Niels, who remained a close companion and confidant throughout their lives. Harald was also a distinguished mathematician.

Margrethe Bohr

Bohr's wife.

Albert Einstein

Greatly admired by Bohr, Einstein was one of Bohr's biggest critics. The two engaged in an endless debate that usually centered on the principle of complementarity. Einstein's early work also contributed to Bohr's atomic model.

Werner Heisenberg

Early Copenhagen fellow responsible for the development of quantum mechanics. He became most famous for his uncertainty principle.

Hendrik Kramers

Dutch physicist who would be a faithful assistant to Bohr for almost ten years. He was pivotal in the establishment of the Copenhagen Institute, and he remained a close friend for many years, helping Bohr to campaign for international cooperation on atomic policy.

Wolfgang Pauli

Early Copenhagen fellow whose exclusion principle addressed some of the shortcomings of Bohr's own electron theory.

Max Planck

One of the early developers of quantum theory, Planck postulated the existence of quanta, which would influence Bohr's atomic model.

Ernest Rutherford

One of Bohr's first mentors, Rutherford gave Bohr the direction he needed early on his career. Bohr's atomic model was also largely a revision of Rutherford's original. The two remained close throughout their lives.

Ernest Schrödinger

Showed how electron behavior could be understood in terms of waves. Schrödinger's theory yielded the same mathematical results as Heisenberg's quantum mechanics, though their postulations differed fundamentally.

J. J. Thomson

Physicist whose work Bohr greatly admired, most known for his discovery of the electron. Bohr went to Cambridge with the hope of working with Thomson, but found him less interested than he had hoped. He gave up on Thomson when the prospect of working with Rutherford arose.

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