royal institute of technology

The Royal Institute of Technology or Kungliga tekniska hgskolan (KTH) is a university in Stockholm, Sweden. The designation "Tekniska hgskolan 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.

Campus

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

Organization

Architecture
Aeronautical and Vehicle Engineering
Alfvn Laboratory
Applied Information Technology
Biotechnology
Civil and Architectural Engineering
Chemistry
Computer and Systems Sciences
Electrical Engineering
Energy Technology
Fibre and Polymer Technology
Industrial Economics and Management
Information only available in Swedish
Infrastructure
KTH South

Land and Water Resources Engineering
Machine Design
Materials Science and Engineering
Mathematics
Mechanics
Microelectronics and Information Technology
Numerical Analysis and Computer Science
Physics
Production Engineering
Signals, Sensors and Systems
Solid Mechanics
Speech, Music and Hearing

Unit for Language and Communication
History of Science and Technology
The Philosophy Unit

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 specificly 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 300kW (later expanded to 1MW) 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 (Ingenjrsvetenskapsakademien). At 18:59, 13 July 1954, the reactor reached critical mass and Sweden's first sustained nuclear reaction was a fact. 13 July 1954 Sweden's first nuclear reactor, R1 (Reaktor 1), reached critical mass, and Sweden's first sustained nuclear chain 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.