Kai M. Siegbahn

Biographical

Kai M. Siegbahn

Born April 20, 1918, in Lund, Sweden. Parents: Manne Siegbahn and Karin Högbom. Married May 23, 1944, to Anna Brita Rhedin. Three children: Per (1945), Hans (1947) and Nils (1953). Attended the Uppsala Gymnasium; Studied physics, mathematics and chemistry at the University of Uppsala from 1936 until 1942. Graduated in Stockholm 1944. Docent in physics that year. Research associate at the Nobel Institute for Physics 1942 – 1951. Professor of physics at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm from 1951 to 1954. Professor and head of the Physics Department at the University of Uppsala since 1954. Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, Royal Society of Science, Royal Academy of Arts and Science of Uppsala, Royal Physiographical Society of Lund, Societas Scienti arum Fennica, Norwegian Academy of Science, Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters, Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Membre du Comite International des Poids et Mesures, Paris, President of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP).

Awards
The Lindblom Prize 1945
Björkén Prize 1955
Celsius Medal 1962
Sixten Heyman Award, University of Gothenburg 1971
Harrison Howe Award, Rochester 1973
Maurice F. Hasler Award, Cleveland 1975
Charles Frederick Chandler Medal, Columbia University, New York 1976
Björkén Prize 1977
Torbern Bergman Medal 1979
Pittsburgh Award of Spectroscopy 1982
 
Doctor of Science, honoris cause
University of Durham 1972
University of Basel 1980
University of Liège 1981
Upsala College, New Jersey, 1982
 
Research in physics covering atomic and molecular physics, nuclear physics, plasma physics and electron optics. Main research activity in the field of electron spectroscopy, ESCA. Books: Beta- and Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy, 1955; Alpha-, Beta- and Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy, 1965; ESCA-Atomic, Molecular and Solid State Structure Studied by Means of Electron Spectroscopy, 1967; ESCA Applied to Free Molecules, 1969.
 
Surveys on ESCA
Electron Spectroscopy for Chemical Analysis, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London A, 33 – 57, 1970
Electron Spectroscopy, Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, McGrawHill, 1971
Perspectives and Problems in Electron Spectroscopy, Proc. Asilomar Conference 1971, Ed. D. A. Shirley, North Holland, 1972
Electron Spectroscopy-A New Way of Looking into Matter, Endeavor 32, 1973
Electron Spectroscopy for Chemical Analysis, Proc. of Conf. on Atomic Physics 3, Boulder, 1972, Ed. S.J. Smith and G. K. Walters, Plenum, 1973
Electron Spectroscopy for Chemical Analysis (together with C.J. Allan), MTP Int. Rev. of Science, Vol. 12, Analytical Chemistry, Part 1, Butterworths, 1973
Electron Spectroscopy-An Outlook, Proc. Namur Conference 1974, Elsevier 1974
Electron Spectroscopy and Molecular Structure, Pure and Appl. Chem. 48, Pergamon, 1976
Electron Spectroscopy for Solids, Surfaces, Liquids and Free Molecules, in Molecular Spectroscopy, Ch. 15, Heyden 1977

From Nobel Lectures, Physics 1981-1990, Editor-in-Charge Tore Frängsmyr, Editor Gösta Ekspong, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 1993

This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.

Kai M. Siegbahn died on 20 July 2007.

Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1981

To cite this section
MLA style: Kai M. Siegbahn – Biographical. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024. Thu. 21 Nov 2024. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1981/siegbahn/biographical/>

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