Manne Siegbahn

Siegbahn married Karin Högbom in 1914. The couple had two children. Their elder son, Bo Siegbahn, later became a diplomat and politician; the younger son, Kai Siegbahn, became a physicist.

He died on 26 September 1978, in Stockholm, at the age of 91.

Siegbahn unit, the standard length used to describe the wavelengths of x-rays has been named after him as. He was also honored on a stamp issued by Guyana in 1995.

Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn was born on the 3 December 1886, in Örebro , south-central Sweden. His father, Nils Reinhold Georg Siegbahn, was a stationmaster of the State Railways and was posted at Orebro at time of his birth. His mother’s name was Emma Sofia Mathilda Zetterberg.

Manne Siegbahn had his secondary education at Högre Allmänna Realläroverker, Stockholm. On passing out from there in 1906, he entered the University of Lund, receiving his candidate’s degree in 1908, the licentiate degree in 1910 and his doctorate in physics in 1911.

His dissertation paper was titled ‘Magnetische Feldmessung’ (magnetic field measurements). Concurrently, from 1907 to 1911, he also served as an assistant to Professor J. R. Rydberg, known for devising the Rydberg formula.

Immediately after receiving doctoral degree, Siegbahn was appointed as a docent at the University of Lund. However, he spent the summer of 1911 studying in Paris and Berlin.

On returning to Lund he organized his own research group and in 1914 started working on X-ray spectroscopy. In 1915, he became a Deputy Professor of Physics in the same university.

In 1916, he discovered a new group of wavelengths in X-ray emission spectra. It later came to be known as the M series. Thereafter, he concentrated on developing equipments as well as techniques suitable for accurate determination of wavelengths of X-rays.

Sometime now, Professor Rydberg’s health began to fail and he remained absent for a prolonged period. Siegbahn had to take his classes. When Rydberg died in 1920, he was appointed in his place as a full professor.

In 1923, Siegbahn received an offer from the University of Uppsala, which was at that time Sweden’s premier university and had a very well established physics department. Although initially in two minds he later accepted it and moved to Uppsala.

Although Siegbahn worked on diverse fields, he is best remembered for his work on X-ray spectroscopy. By designing new instruments and developing new techniques he facilitated increased accuracy of measurements and also helped to discover many new series within the characteristic X-radiations.