PHYSICIST

William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin

1824 - 1907

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William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (26 June 1824 – 17 December 1907), was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer. Born in Belfast, he was for 53 years the professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow, where he undertook significant research on the mathematical analysis of electricity, was instrumental in the formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and contributed significantly to unifying physics, which was then in its infancy of development as an emerging academic discipline. He received the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1883 and served as its president from 1890 to 1895. In 1892 he became the first scientist to be elevated to the House of Lords. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin is the 23rd most popular physicist (up from 51st in 2019), the 63rd most popular biography from United Kingdom (up from 141st in 2019) and the 7th most popular British Physicist.

William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin is most famous for his work in thermodynamics and the invention of the Kelvin scale.

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Among PHYSICISTS

Among physicists, William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin ranks 23 out of 851Before him are Henri Becquerel, J. J. Thomson, James Prescott Joule, Ernest Rutherford, Edward Victor Appleton, and Werner Heisenberg. After him are Enrico Fermi, John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, Georg Ohm, Robert Hooke, Maria Goeppert Mayer, and Charles Thomson Rees Wilson.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1824, William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin ranks 1After him are Bedřich Smetana, Alexandre Dumas fils, Anton Bruckner, Gustav Kirchhoff, Stonewall Jackson, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Maria Alexandrovna, Eugène Boudin, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Paul Broca, and Dayananda Saraswati. Among people deceased in 1907, William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin ranks 3Before him are Dmitri Mendeleev, and Edvard Grieg. After him are Klara Hitler, Sully Prudhomme, Oscar II of Sweden, Henri Moissan, Giosuè Carducci, Asaph Hall, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Hector Malot, and Alfred Jarry.

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin ranks 63 out of 8,785Before him are Mary of Teck (1867), Margaret Thatcher (1925), Ecgberht, King of Wessex (800), Edward Victor Appleton (1892), John Lennon (1940), and John Dalton (1766). After him are David Hume (1711), Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (1900), Arthur Conan Doyle (1859), James V of Scotland (1512), Aleister Crowley (1875), and John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh (1842).

Among PHYSICISTS In United Kingdom

Among physicists born in United Kingdom, William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin ranks 7Before him are Isaac Newton (1643), Stephen Hawking (1942), Michael Faraday (1791), J. J. Thomson (1856), James Prescott Joule (1818), and Edward Victor Appleton (1892). After him are John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh (1842), Robert Hooke (1635), Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (1869), Owen Willans Richardson (1879), James Clerk Maxwell (1831), and William Gilbert (1544).