Niels Bohr Centenary

On the 100th anniversary of Niels Bohr's birth, physicists all over the world payed tribute to one of the giants of twentieth century science. On 6 May 1985 CERN paid its own special tribute, as in addition to his physics accomplishments, Bohr played a vital part in shaping European physics and in guiding the fledgling Organization. After Director General Herwig Schopper set the scene, Abraham Pais of Rockefeller University, New York, described Bohr's monumental contributions to physics, providing the first quantum picture of the atom, and his emergence as an international figure. Then former Research Director General Leon Van Hove covered Bohr's role in the events which led to the setting up of CERN in 1954, and his subsequent contributions as a key member of the Scientific Policy Committee.