Kristian Birkeland

Kristian Olaf Bernhard Birkeland was a Norwegian scientist. He is best remembered as the person whose theories of atmospheric electric currents elucidated the nature of the Aurora borealis. In order to fund his research on the aurorae, he invented the electromagnetic cannon and the BirkelandEyde process of fixing nitrogen from the air. Birkeland was nominated for the Nobel Prize seven times.

Birkeland was born in Christiania to Reinart Birkeland and Ingeborg and wrote his first scientific paper at the age of 18. Birkeland married Ida Charlotte Hammer in May 1905. They had no children and, due to Birkelands preoccupation with his work, they divorced in 1911.

Source: Wikipedia