[Image: Ångströmsgården]
           To whom it may be of interest and/or concern

                    The Angstrom Foundation AB

The Angstrom Foundation AB is registered in Sweden and has its
Headquarters in the little town of Ange some 450 km north of
Stockholm at about the geographical midpoint of the country.  The
Headquarters consists of 6 buildings all originating in the early
1800's.  Buildings in existence on the site prior to that time
were lost in fire.  Activity on the site has been noted as far
back as the early 1500's and in 1547 the capital letter A was
registered as its trademark.  To day the buildings -- all
timber -- have been reconditioned and the Foundation can now
receive 12-15 guests and there is additional space for mini
conferences, work meetings and exhibitions.

Apart from being a family Foundation, the idea behind The Angstrom
Foundation AB was to create a forum where scientists and researchers
in various fields and from various countries, could come together
in a very informal way and in a peaceful surrounding, to freely
discuss ideas, theories, discoveries and problems.

The name Angstrom is frequently connected to science.  Anders
Jonas Angstrom (1814-1874), one of the foremost physicists of his
time, was one of the founders of optical spectroscopy, and he
also made important contributions to other fields of physics
such as thermodynamics, thermoelectricity, optics, electricity
and magnetism, the terrestrial magnetic field and the conduction
of heat.  A unit of length, the angstrom unit (A), among other
things used for measuring the wavelength of light, was named after
him at the Solar Conference in London 1905

His son, Knut Angstrom (1857-1910) devoted most of his research
to solar radiation and the solar constant, notably the intensity
of incoming radiation, and he especially investigated the
infrared part of the solar spectrum.  A modern calculation shows
that we receive roughly 20.000 times more energy from the sun
than we consume here on earth.  Radiation from radioactive
materials and in connection with X-rays was also within his field.
He was a skilful instrument designer, and his pyrheliometer for
the measurements of solar radiation was adopted as an
international standard instrument in 1905.  It is not unlikely
that the heavy radiation from experimenting with radioactivity
as well as X-rays could have contributed to his untimely death.

Anders Jonas Angstrom's spectrometer and Knut Angstrom's
Compensation pyrheliometer together with its heliostat (sunlight
reflector) as well as a copy of the international meter
standard are kept at the Foundation.

The new and super modern Angstrom Laboratory in Uppsala is named
in the honour of Anders Jonas Angstrom and Knut Angstrom, both
professors of physics at Uppsala University.

Knut Angstroms youngest son, Tord Angstrom, (1892-1978) was a
pioneer in the field of aviation in Sweden.  He began his
training at Bleriots school in France in December 1911 and
received his Swedish license NR 5 in early 1912 being the first
civilian aviator in Sweden.  Together with some friends he
designed and built the first Swedish aircraft.  Tord Angstrom
devoted his active life to aviation and its safety and represented
the Scandinavian countries at the Chicago conference in 1944 and
became Sweden´s representative in the international organizations
for aviation PICAO and ICAO.  During his lifetime Tord Angstrom
received all the decorations and medals ever awarded in the field
of aviation in Sweden.

                        The Angstrom Medal

After Anders Jonas Angstrom´s death in 1874 the Royal Society of
Science in Sweden asked the Royal Mint to strike a medal in his
memory.  The medal is in the form of a silver "coin" with AJA´s
profile in relief on one side and the sun and the solar spectrum
on the other side.  It is awarded together with the Angstrom prize
to scientists in Sweden at Uppsala University for achievements in
the field of physics (spectroscopy) or to encourage future
achievements based on current work.  The prize and the medal was
awarded for the first time in 1899 thus in 1999 it has been
registered and has existed for 100 years.

When The Angstrom Foundation was founded in 1989 it was granted
the permission from the Royal Society of Science in Sweden to use
the medal. It is struck with the original stamps from 1874 and is
available in four versions gilt-silver and silver (both with blue
and yellow ribbon), silver and bronze (in coin form).  The
Foundation had intended to award the medals to serious researchers
and scientists with interesting ideas and theories and deeply
devoted to their work before the final goals and/or achievements
have been reached.  It was felt that encouragement on the way and
possibly early in life (as early as high school in some cases)
could be quite important.  When final achievements have been
reached there are other awards waiting.

The Angstrom Foundation AB wants to support and promote excellence
in all of the natural sciences.
The Foundation is aware of the fact that through out history it
has happened that researchers and scientists have "borrowed" other
researchers and scientists ideas, theories, discoveries and
contributions pretending it to be their own discoveries and claiming
credit for themselves.

To do so knowingly -- without an immediate correction -- is far
from showing excellence in science and is, in our opinion, nothing
less than a disgrace.  A person doing so is disgraceful and is also
bringing disgrace to a field of science in which he/she definitely
does not belong.  The Angstrom Foundation AB would never knowingly
promote such an action.

Excellence in science is to us, among other things, when you with
an open and honest mind are willing to openly discuss, argue and
debate your own findings whenever asked to do so.  Excellence in
science is also remembering that it is never wrong to admit a
fault -- especially if it is your own.  Excellence in science is
also shown if you after a long time of serious research run into a
"wall" and admit it and show exactly where you went wrong.  A
mistake can sometimes be almost as valuable as success as it might
save science and public in general time as well as money.

The Angstrom Foundation AB
/L-J Angstrom/
Founder