William Ramsay
| Sir William Ramsay | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
2 October 1852 Glasgow, Scotland |
| Died | 23 July 1916 (aged 63) High Wycombe, Bucks., England |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Fields | Chemistry |
| Institutions |
University of Glasgow (1874–80) University College, Bristol (1880–87) University College London (1887–1913) |
| Alma mater | University of Glasgow (1866–9) Anderson's Institution, Glasgow (1869) University of Tübingen (PhD 1873) |
| Doctoral advisor | Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig |
| Doctoral students | Edward Charles Cyril Baly James Johnston Dobbie Jaroslav Heyrovský |
| Known for | Noble gases |
| Influenced | Otto Hahn |
| Notable awards |
Leconte Prize (1895) Barnard Medal for Meritorious Service to Science (1895) Davy Medal (1895) Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1904) Matteucci Medal (1907) Elliott Cresson Medal (1913) |
Sir William Ramsay KCB, FRS, FRSE (2 October 1852 – 23 July 1916) was a British chemist who discovered the noble gases and received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1904 "in recognition of his services in the discovery of the inert gaseous elements in air" (along with his collaborator, Lord Rayleigh, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics that same year for their discovery of argon). After the two men identified argon, Ramsay investigated other atmospheric gases. His work in isolating argon, helium, neon, krypton and xenon led to the development of a new section of the periodic table.
Ramsay was born in Glasgow on 2 October 1852, the son of civil engineer William Ramsay and Catherine, née Robertson. He was a nephew of the geologist Sir Andrew Ramsay.
He attended the Glasgow Academy and then continued his education at the University of Glasgow with Thomas Anderson and then went to study in Germany at the University of Tübingen with Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig where his doctoral thesis was entitled Investigations in the Toluic and Nitrotoluic Acids.
Ramsay went back to Glasgow as Anderson's assistant at the Anderson College. He was appointed as Professor of Chemistry at the University College of Bristol in 1879 and married Margaret Buchanan in 1881. In the same year he became the Principal of University College, Bristol, and somehow managed to combine that with active research both in organic chemistry and on gases.
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