PHYSICIST

J. J. Thomson

1856 - 1940

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Sir Joseph John Thomson (18 December 1856 – 30 August 1940) was an English physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1906 "in recognition of the great merits of his theoretical and experimental investigations on the conduction of electricity by gases." In 1897, Thomson showed that cathode rays were composed of previously unknown negatively charged particles (now called electrons), which he calculated must have bodies much smaller than atoms and a very large charge-to-mass ratio. Thomson is also credited with finding the first evidence for isotopes of a stable (non-radioactive) element in 1913, as part of his exploration into the composition of canal rays (positive ions). His experiments to determine the nature of positively charged particles, with Francis William Aston, were the first use of mass spectrometry and led to the development of the mass spectrograph. Thomson was awarded the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the conduction of electricity in gases. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. J. J. Thomson is the 18th most popular physicist (up from 44th in 2019), the 53rd most popular biography from United Kingdom (up from 119th in 2019) and the 4th most popular British Physicist.

J. J. Thomson was a British physicist who discovered the electron. He also discovered the first subatomic particle, the proton.

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Among PHYSICISTS

Among physicists, J. J. Thomson ranks 18 out of 851. Before him are Albert A. Michelson, Pierre Curie, André-Marie Ampère, Evangelista Torricelli, Erwin Schrödinger, and Henri Becquerel. After him are James Prescott Joule, Ernest Rutherford, Edward Victor Appleton, Werner Heisenberg, William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, and Enrico Fermi.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1856, J. J. Thomson ranks 3. Before him are Nikola Tesla, and Sigmund Freud. After him are George Bernard Shaw, Philippe Pétain, Woodrow Wilson, Archduchess Gisela of Austria, Louis Sullivan, Frederick Winslow Taylor, Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, Napoléon, Prince Imperial, and Emil Kraepelin. Among people deceased in 1940, J. J. Thomson ranks 3. Before him are Leon Trotsky, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. After him are Selma Lagerlöf, Paul Klee, Neville Chamberlain, Walter Benjamin, Mikhail Bulgakov, Arthur Harden, Nikolai Yezhov, Robert Wadlow, and Carl Bosch.

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, J. J. Thomson ranks 53 out of 8,785. Before him are Alexander Fleming (1881), Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (1947), Thomas Hardy (1840), Bernard Montgomery (1887), James Cook (1728), and Mary, Queen of Scots (1542). After him are James Prescott Joule (1818), Anthony Hopkins (1937), John Major (1943), Mary of Teck (1867), Margaret Thatcher (1925), and Ecgberht, King of Wessex (800).

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Among PHYSICISTS In United Kingdom

Among physicists born in United Kingdom, J. J. Thomson ranks 4. Before him are Isaac Newton (1643), Stephen Hawking (1942), and Michael Faraday (1791). After him are James Prescott Joule (1818), Edward Victor Appleton (1892), William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (1824), John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh (1842), Robert Hooke (1635), Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (1869), Owen Willans Richardson (1879), and James Clerk Maxwell (1831).

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