Ben R. Mottelson was born in Chicago in 1926 to Goodman Mottelson and Georgia Blum. In 1943 he enlisted in the United States Navy, was sent to Purdue University for officer training and then, at the war's conclusion, returned to Purdue to complete his B.S. degree. Upon graduation from Purdue in 1947, Mottelson began his doctoral program in physics at Harvard University. He was granted his Ph.D. in 1950 for a dissertation on nuclear physics written under the direction of Nobel Laureate Julian Schwinger.

From 1950 to 1957 Mottelson conducted postdoctoral research in Copenhagen, Denmark. At the conclusion of this period, Mottelson was appointed to the staff at the newly-created Nordic Institute for Theoretical Atomic Physics (NORDITA). Mottelson has continued his association with NORDITA ever since and, in 1981, was named director of the institute.

During his early years in Copenhagen, Mottelson's primary research interest was the structure of the atomic nucleus. In...