Hannes Alfvén

Early Life and Career

Hannes Olof Gösta Alfvén (Swedish: alˈveːn; 30 May 1908 – 2 April 1995) was a Swedish electrical engineer and scientist. He studied electricity and later focused on a special kind of science called plasma physics.

Nobel Prize and Important Work

In 1970, Alfvén won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his discoveries about how special waves move in plasma, now called Alfvén waves. These waves help explain many things that happen in space.

Contributions to Science

Alfvén’s work helped scientists understand several important space events. He studied how lights in the sky called aurorae behave, the areas of strong energy around Earth known as the Van Allen radiation belts, and big changes in Earth’s magnetic field called magnetic storms. He also looked at how plasmas move in our galaxy, the Milky Way, and how energy flows around Earth, called the Earth's magnetic field and magnetosphere.

His ideas still help scientists today as they explore space and energy.

Education

Hannes Alfvén got his PhD from the University of Uppsala in 1934. His thesis looked at high-frequency electromagnetic waves.

Early years

Hannes Alfvén taught physics at the University of Uppsala and the Nobel Institute for Physics in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1934. He later became a professor at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. There he taught electromagnetic theory and electrical measurements. Alfvén also spent time as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Maryland, College Park. He worked at universities in the United States, including the University of California, San Diego and the University of Southern California.

Later years

In 1991, Alfvén stopped working as a professor of electrical engineering at the University of California, San Diego and as a professor of plasma physics at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

Alfvén lived in both California and Sweden during his later years. He passed away when he was 86 years old.

Research

In 1937, Hannes Alfvén suggested that plasma, a special kind of matter, could carry electric currents across space. This created magnetic fields. Later, he won the Nobel Prize for his work in magnetohydrodynamics, which studies how magnetic fields and fluids work together.

Alfvén’s ideas helped explain many space phenomena, such as auroras — the colorful lights near the North and South Poles. His work also helped with technologies like particle accelerators and rocket engines. Today, scientists use his ideas to study the Sun, stars, and space between them.

Personal life

Hannes Alfvén was married to his wife Kerstin for 67 years. They had five children—a boy and four girls. One daughter, Inger Alfvén, became a famous writer in Sweden. Another became a lawyer. Alfvén’s uncle, the composer Hugo Alfvén, was also well-known.

Alfvén studied many subjects besides science, like the history of science, oriental philosophy, and religion. He spoke several languages and cared about safely managing radioactive waste. He died in Djursholm at the age of 86.

Awards and honours

The Hannes Alfvén Prize is given each year by the European Physical Society for important work in plasma physics. It is named after him. An asteroid called 1778 Alfvén also honors him.

Alfvén received many awards for his work. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1970 for his studies on magnetohydrodynamics. He also received the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1967, the Franklin Medal in 1971, and the Lomonosov Gold Medal in 1971, among other honors. He was a foreign member of the United States and Soviet Academies of Sciences.

Selected bibliography

Hannes Alfvén wrote many books and articles about physics and space. Some of his famous works include:

Books

• Cosmical Electrodynamics
• Worlds-Antiworlds: Antimatter in Cosmology
• The Great Computer: A Vision
• Atom, Man, and the Universe: A Long Chain of Complications
• Living on the Third Planet (with Kerstin Alfvén)
• Cosmic Plasma

Articles

• On the cosmogony of the solar system I
• Interplanetary Magnetic Field
• On the Origin of Cosmic Magnetic Fields
• Many more articles about space, plasma, and the universe.