Alfven, Hannes Olof Gosta (1908-1995), a Swedish physicist, won a share of the Nobel Prize in physics in 1970 for his research in magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and plasma physics. Magnetohydrodynamics is the study of the ways in which electric and magnetic fields interact with fluids that conduct electricity.
Alfven developed MHD and applied it to the study of plasma, a gaslike form of matter composed of electrically charged particles. He showed that plasma passing through a magnetic field produces electromagnetic waves. These waves, called Alfven waves, help explain the behavior of plasma, which makes up more than 99 percent of all matter in the universe. The results of Alfven’s work have been used in astrophysics and space science and in designing fusion reactors (see Nuclear energy ).
Alfven was born on May 30, 1908, in Norrkoping, Sweden, and earned a Ph.D. degree in physics from Uppsala University. He joined the faculty of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm in 1940. In 1967, Alfven became a professor of applied physics at the University of California at San Diego. He died on April 2, 1995.
