Background
Borgman was born to a Russified Finnish-born father and a Russian mother.
Borgman was born to a Russified Finnish-born father and a Russian mother.
He entered the Physics and Mathematics department of Saint St. Petersburg State University, in 1866 and graduated in 1870. In 1873, Borgman went to the University of Heidelberg, where he attended lectures and studied in the laboratory under the German physicist Gustav Kirchhoff.
In 1875 he was appointed as a laboratory assistant at Saint St. Petersburg University. He became a professor of physics in Saint St. Petersburg State University from 1888. There he taught the famous physicist Alexander Popov.
He along with Orest Khvolson taught one of the earliest course of electrical engineering in Russia.
In 1897, Borgman became the first scientist to demonstrate that X-rays and radioactive materials induce thermoluminescence. He was also the first elected rector of the Saint St. Petersburg State University in 1905.
He left the post in 1910. Under the leadership of Borgman, the V. A. Fock Institute of Physics was created in 1901.
He was the second director of the institute from March 1902 to 1914 after F. F. Petrushevsky.
Borgman received his Doctorate in 1882 after defending his thesis "On Slight heating of iron in the magnetization.".