Sir Joseph John Thomson (1856-1940)

Awarded the Prize “in recognition of the great merits of his theoretical experimental investigations on the conduction of electricity by gases.”

British physicist. Thomson was born in Manchester on December 18, 1856. He entered Owens College (later Manchester University) at the age of 14. After studying engineering then the sciences, he won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge University graduated in 1876. He was Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics at Cambridge, Honorary Professor of Physics at Cambridge Royal Institution in London. During 1919-1920 he was President of the Royal Society. Thomson died in Cambridge, August 30, 1940.