Royal Institute of Technology

The Royal Institute of Technology or Kungliga tekniska högskolan (KTH) is a university in Stockholm, Sweden. The designation "Tekniska högskolan i Stockholm" ("Institute of Technology in Stockholm") is sometimes seen in the media, but is not an official name. KTH was founded in 1827 and it is the largest of the six technical universities in Sweden.

Main building in winter

Campus

The main campus building at Valhallavägen, by architect Erik Lallerstedt , was completed in 1917.

Organization

Students

See: The Student Union at the Royal Institute of Technology

Faculty

Chemical Engineering Microelectronics and Information Technology (IMIT)

History

The origin of the school was the Technological Institute in Stockholm, which was started in 1826. In 1877 the name was changed into the current one.

R1

After the World War 2, and more specifically the two american nuclear weapons used on the two japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Swedish military leadership recognized nuclear weapons as something that should be thoroughly investigated and researched to provde Sweden with knowledge on how to defend itself from a nuclear attack. At this time Sweden knew virtually nothing about nuclear physics, as all information about the American bombs and the research around them was kept strictly confidential by the United States. With the mission to "make something with neutrons", the Swedish team, with scientists like Rolf Maximilian Sievert, set out to research the subject and eventually build a nuclear reactor for testing.

After a few years of basic research, they started building a 300 kW (later expanded to 1 MW) reactor, named "Reaktor 1", R1 for short, in a reactor hall 25 meters under the surface right underneath KTH. Today this might seem insane, to say the least, since approximately 40,000 people lived within a 1 km radius, but at the time the risks were deemed tolerable since it meant having the reactor very close to scientists of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien).

At 18:59, 13 July 1954, the reactor reached critical mass and Sweden's first sustained nuclear reaction was a fact. R1 was to be the main site for almost all Swedish nuclear research untill 1970 when the reactor was finally decomissioned, mostly due to the increased awareness of the risks involved with operating a reactor in a densely populated area like Stockholm. The reactor is long gone, but the reactor hall remains to the amusement of many as they are told that they're standing next door to what used to be Sweden's first nuclear reactor.

Noted Royal Institute of Technology alumni

• Karl-Birger Blomdahl, composer (dropped out)
• Kurt Atterberg, composer (graduated 1911)
• Salomon August Andrée, arctic explorer
• Knut Frænkel , arctic explorer
• Baltzar von Platen
• Carl Munters
• Ivar Kreuger
• Ernst Alexanderson
• Christer Fuglesang
• Dolph Lundgren

Honorary doctorates

• Richard Stallman, Honorary Doctorate
• Bill Gates, Honorary Doctorate

Noted Royal Institute of Technology faculty

• Hannes Alfvén, Nobel Prize laureate
• Kai Siegbahn, Nobel Prize laureate
• Rolf Schock
• Arne Kaijser
• Johan Håstad

See also

• Chalmers University of Technology
• Stockholm University
• List of universities in Sweden

External links

• Royal Institute of Technology - Official site