{"id":"hannes-alfven","type":"person","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/hannes-alfven","language":"en","name":"Hannes Alfvén","name_en":"Hannes Alfvén","name_ne":null,"description":"Swedish electrical engineer, plasma physicist and science fiction author (1908–1995), winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize for Physics","headline":"Swedish electrical engineer, plasma physicist and science fiction author (1908–1995), winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize for Physics","also_known_as":[],"summary":"Hannes Olof Gösta Alfvén was a Swedish electrical engineer, plasma physicist and winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). He described the class of MHD waves now known as Alfvén waves. He was originally trained as an electrical power engineer and later moved to research and teaching in the fields of plasma physics and electrical engineering. Alfvén made many contributions to plasma physics, including theories describing the behavior of aurorae, the Van Allen radiation belts, the effect of magnetic storms on the Earth's magnetic field, the terrestrial magnetosphere, and the dynamics of plasmas in the Milky Way galaxy.","summary_more":[],"facts":[{"key":"born","label":"Born","values":[{"text":"30 May 1908","date":"1908-05-30"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q54945#P569"}},{"key":"birthplace","label":"Place of birth","values":[{"text":"Norrköping Saint Olof parish","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q10602808"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q54945#P19"}},{"key":"died","label":"Died","values":[{"text":"2 April 1995","date":"1995-04-02"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q54945#P570"}},{"key":"deathplace","label":"Place of death","values":[{"text":"Danderyd","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q10466522"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q54945#P20"}},{"key":"citizenship","label":"Citizenship","values":[{"text":"Sweden","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q34"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q54945#P27"}},{"key":"occupation","label":"Occupation","values":[{"text":"physicist","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q169470"},{"text":"astronomer","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11063"},{"text":"astrophysicist","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q752129"},{"text":"university teacher","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1622272"},{"text":"electrical engineer","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1326886"},{"text":"science fiction writer","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18844224"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q54945#P106"}},{"key":"education","label":"Education","values":[{"text":"Uppsala University","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q185246","start":"1926","end":"1934"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q54945#P69"}},{"key":"spouse","label":"Spouse","values":[{"text":"Kerstin Alfvén","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q109335901"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q54945#P26"}},{"key":"awards","label":"Awards","values":[{"text":"Nobel Prize in Physics","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q38104","date":"1970"},{"text":"Polhem Prize","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3368214","date":"1950"},{"text":"Lomonosov Gold Medal","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1340199","date":"1971"},{"text":"Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q753072","date":"1967"},{"text":"Dirac Medal for the Advancement of Physics","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1227372","date":"1979"},{"text":"Björkén Prize","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q10430643","date":"1946"},{"text":"William Bowie Medal","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1780740","date":"1988"},{"text":"Franklin Medal","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3141777","date":"1971"},{"text":"Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q52382875"},{"text":"Foreign Member of the Royal Society","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14906020","date":"1980-04-24"},{"text":"The KTH Great Prize","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q10542282","date":"1947"},{"text":"Fellow of the American Geophysical Union","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q61663688","date":"1966"},{"text":"honorary doctor of Royal Institute of Technology","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q38257102","date":"1985"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q54945#P166"}}],"office":null,"sections":[],"cited":[],"cited_from":null,"videos":[],"last_reviewed":null,"organizations":[],"same_as":["https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannes_Alfv%C3%A9n","https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q54945"],"faq":[{"q":"When was Hannes Alfvén born?","a":"Hannes Alfvén was born on 30 May 1908 in Norrköping Saint Olof parish."},{"q":"Where did Hannes Alfvén study?","a":"Hannes Alfvén was educated at Uppsala University."}],"related":[{"name":"Allvar Gullstrand","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/allvar-gullstrand"},{"name":"Arne Tiselius","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/arne-tiselius"},{"name":"Arvid Carlsson","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/arvid-carlsson"},{"name":"Bengt I. Samuelsson","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/bengt-i-samuelsson"},{"name":"Hugo Theorell","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/hugo-theorell"},{"name":"Kai Siegbahn","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/kai-siegbahn"},{"name":"Manne Siegbahn","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/manne-siegbahn"},{"name":"Robert Bárány","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/robert-barany"},{"name":"Sune Bergström","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/sune-bergstrom"},{"name":"Svante Pääbo","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/svante-paabo"},{"name":"Theodor Svedberg","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/theodor-svedberg"},{"name":"Tomas Lindahl","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/tomas-lindahl"}],"places_in":[],"nearby":[],"image":{"url":"https://diginpl.com/kb-img/hannes-alfven-fded409d16.jpg","width":500,"height":694,"license":"Public domain","credit":"Unknown author Unknown author","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:YoungAlfven.jpg"},"sources":[{"label":"Wikipedia (English): Hannes Alfvén","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannes_Alfv%C3%A9n","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"},{"label":"Wikidata item Q54945","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q54945","license":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/"},{"label":"Image: YoungAlfven.jpg by Unknown author Unknown author (Public domain)","url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:YoungAlfven.jpg","license":null}],"license":{"text":"CC BY-SA 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/","facts":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/"},"attribution":"Text from the Wikipedia article Hannes Alfvén, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page's text is shared under the same licence. Facts from Wikidata (CC0). Image: YoungAlfven.jpg — Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain.","cite":"\"Hannes Alfvén\". DigiNepal. Last updated 1 November 2026. https://diginpl.com/people/hannes-alfven. Retrieved 5 November 2026.","date_modified":"2026-11-01T06:59:19Z","facts_checked":"2026-11-05","alternates":{"html":"https://diginpl.com/people/hannes-alfven","en":"https://diginpl.com/people/hannes-alfven","ne":"https://diginpl.com/people/hannes-alfven?lang=ne"}}