Professors Ernest Rutherford and Joseph John Thomson, c mid-20th century

Ernest Rutherford biography can be found in his individual entry. Joseph John Thomson, 18 December 1856 - 30 August 1940. He was known as 'J. J.'. Thomson was an English physicist. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1906 for "in recognition of the great merits of his theoretical and experimental investigations on the conduction of electricity by gases." He worked on cathode rays and how they were made up of electrons as well as finding the first evidence that stable elements could have isotopes. He studied at Owens College (now University of Manchester) in 1870 at age 14. He moved to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1876. He obtained his BA degree in mathematics in 1880. He became a fellow of Trinity College in 1881. He then received an MA degree in 1883. In 1884, Thomson was appointed Cavendish Professor of Physics at the University of Cambridge. In 1890, he married Rose Elizabeth Paget. They had two children, George Paget Thomson (who was also awarded a Nobel Prize), and Joan Paget Thomson (later Charnock) who became an author. He received numerous awards in his lifetime, including the Royal Medal, and Copley Medal. He was Knighted in 1908, and was awarded Order of Merit in 1912. He was a capable teacher, with seven of his doctoral students going on to win Nobel Prizes (including Ernest Rutherford, Lawrence Bragg, Charles Barkla, Francis Aston, Charles Thomson Rees Wilson, Owen Richardson, Edward Victor Appleton. Further, his research assistants and junior colleagues, Niels Bohr, and Max Born (creator of these slides) won Nobel Prizes in Physics. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society on 12 June 1884 and served as President of the Royal Society from 1915 to 1920. He was 30th Master of Trinity College between 1918 and 1940. He died in 1940, aged 83, in Cambridge.