Happy Birthday H.C. Ørsted (a day late...)
I wanted to post this yesterday, but after returning from BiRC's retreat to Mols Bjerge I was really too tired to blog...
Anyway, yesterday was H.C. Ørsted's birthday, as was also celebrated by Google's doodle. H.C. Ørsted (1777-1851) is one of the greatest Danish scientists, and the discoverer of elctromagnetism (back in 1820) and the term "gedankenexperiment".
He is celebrated in Denmark by having several roads named after him.
As Danish scientists goes, Niels Bohr is probably better known, and he is celebrated by being on our 500DKK notes, but these days it is Ørsted you should be celebrating.
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227-227=0
August 15th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
'several roads' ... i always thought the entire institute at university of copenhagen that is named after him was more of an achievement but maybe thats all in the eye of the beholder =)
August 15th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Oh I think it is much more of an achievement to get a road named after you than an institute!
How many institutes do you think the average citizen can name? Compare that to how many know of a H.C. Ørstedsvej.
To be celebrated in academia is one thing, but having the kind of impact to get roads in many towns named after you is in a quite different league, in my opinion. That ranges up there with getting a unit named after you (which he did as well, of course, although no one uses it any more since it isn't an SI unit).
Of course, I would personally be happy with settling for getting an institute named after myself ;)