Professor Rolf Maximilian Sievert (6 May 1896 – 3 October 1966) was a medical physicist whose major contribution was in the study of the biological effects of radiation.
Professor Sievert (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈsiːvəʈ]) was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He served as head of the physics laboratory at Sweden's Radiumhemmet from 1924 to 1937, when he became head of the department of radiation physics at the Karolinska Institute. He played a pioneering role in the measurement of doses of radiation especially in its use in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. In later years, he focused his research on the biological effects of repeated exposure to low doses of radiation. In 1964, he founded the International Radiation Protection Association, serving for a time as its chairman. He also chaired the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation.
He invented a number of instruments for measuring radiation doses, the most widely known being the Sievert chamber.
In 1979, at the Conférence Générale des Poids et Mesures (General Conference on Weights and Measures or CGPM), the SI unit for ionizing radiation dose equivalent was named after him and given the name sievert (Sv).
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