Niels Bohr ( October 7 , 1885 - November 18 , 1962 ) was a famous Danish physicist who helped discover quantum physics , the structure of the atom , and the atomic bomb . Bohr was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1922 for , in short , discovering the quantization of atomic energy levels . Niels Henrik David Bohr ( ; 7 October 1885 â `` 18 November 1962 ) was a Danish physicist who made fundamental contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics , for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922 .