{"id":2190,"date":"2023-12-14T11:24:42","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T10:24:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/president\/?p=2190"},"modified":"2023-12-14T11:24:42","modified_gmt":"2023-12-14T10:24:42","slug":"the-legacy-of-alfven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/president\/2023\/12\/the-legacy-of-alfven\/","title":{"rendered":"The legacy of Alfv\u00e9n"},"content":{"rendered":"
A year ago, the opera ‘The Tale of the Great Computing Machine’, based on ‘The Tale of the Great Computer’ written by Hannes Alfv\u00e9n in 1966, was a success at KTH. He was a KTH professor and Nobel Prize winner, and yesterday the various Nobel Prizes were awarded.<\/div>\n

Working at KTH, which is full of talent and stars<\/strong>, makes me undeniably proud – soon our second Nobel Prize may be on its way – who knows?Hannes Alfv\u00e9n received the prize in physics in 1970 and I have always been curious about him as a person. Who was he and what was his legacy to his alma mater?<\/p>\n

To answer this question, a while ago I got my hands on a fantastic book<\/strong> “Tidens retorik”. It was written by Svante Lindqvist, a former professor of history of technology at KTH Royal Institute of Technology who has long been fascinated by Alfv\u00e9n.<\/p>\n

I have not yet read the entire<\/strong> comprehensive volume<\/strong> – I will readily admit – but the picture of a highly committed and solid researcher emerges. He seems to have been genuinely curious not only about science but also about the society in which it operates.<\/p>\n

To dare to be critical<\/strong> and see how various technological advances can also have a downside feels like a legacy from Alfv\u00e9n. In addition to being an extraordinary scientist, he was also a committed social debater and eventually took a stand against nuclear power. It was a position that was not appreciated in all parts of society at the time, but which nevertheless shows his great integrity and commitment to contemporary issues.<\/p>\n

Another commitment, if one may speculate<\/strong>, was as the bearer of KTH’s tradition of close co-operation and interaction with industry and society in general. Something that we carry on more than 80 years later in our strategic partnerships.<\/p>\n

Alfv\u00e9n apparently invented the trochotron whose patent was sold to LM Ericsson in 1946 for a sum that exceeded the Nobel Prize he received much later.<\/p>\n

By the way, I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in due time!<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A year ago, the opera ‘The Tale of the Great Computing Machine’, based on ‘The Tale of the Great Computer’ written by Hannes Alfv\u00e9n in 1966, was a success at KTH. He was a KTH professor and Nobel Prize winner, and yesterday the various Nobel Prizes were awarded. Working at KTH, which is full of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1383,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-okategoriserat"],"yoast_head":"\nThe legacy of Alfv\u00e9n - President Anders S\u00f6derholm's blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kth.se\/blogs\/president\/2023\/12\/the-legacy-of-alfven\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The legacy of Alfv\u00e9n - President Anders S\u00f6derholm's blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A year ago, the opera ‘The Tale of the Great Computing Machine’, based on ‘The Tale of the Great Computer’ written by Hannes Alfv\u00e9n in 1966, was a success at KTH. 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