Sir William Ramsay

1852 - 1916

Chemist. Ramsay was born in Glasgow. He went on to become Professor of Chemistry at Bristol and then at University College, London. Chiefly responsible for the discovery of the inert gases Argon (1894), Helium (1895), Neon, Krypton and Xenon (1898), Ramsay also show that helium was produced on the radio-active decay of radium. He also discovered the last of the noble elements, the radio-active gas Radon, in 1910. He spread scientific interest to other parts of the British Empire, including setting up the Indian Institute for Science at Bangalore. He was knighted in 1902 and received a Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1904.

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