William Ramsay

**Sir William Ramsay**  (; 2 October 1852 – 23 July 1916) was a Scottish chemist. Ramsay discovered the noble gases. He also helped discover several elements that are on our periodic table today. He 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 Lord Rayleigh).

Between 1894 and 1898, he discovered five new elements. These were the noble gases, helium, neon, argon, krypton, and xenon. Following these discoveries, Ramsay helped create the noble gases as a new group in the periodic table.

## Early life

Ramsay was born in Glasgow on 2 October 1852. He was a nephew of the geologist Sir Andrew Ramsay. His father, William, Sr., was a civil engineer. His mother was Catherine Robertson. He studied at Glasgow Academy, at the University of Glasgow and at University of Tübingen in Germany.

Ramsay went back to Glasgow as an assistant at the Anderson College. He found a job as Professor of chemistry at the University College of Bristol in 1879.

## Career

On the evening of 19 April 1894 Ramsay was at a lecture given by Lord Rayleigh. Rayleigh had noticed a difference between the density of nitrogen made by chemical synthesis and nitrogen isolated from the air by removal of the other known components. He named the gas responsible for this difference "argon".

He was working with Morris Travers, when he discovered neon, krypton, and xenon. He also isolated helium. In 1910, he also created and characterized radon.  In 1904, Ramsay received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

## Personal life

Ramsay was married to Margaret Buchanan in 1881. They had one daughter, Catherine, and one son, William George. William George died when he was 40.

## Death

Ramsay lived in Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire until his death. He died in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire on 23 July 1916 from nasal cancer (nose cancer). He died at the age of 63. He was buried in Hazlemere Parish church.

## Recognition

The Sir William Ramsay School in Hazlemere is named after him.

## Other websites

- Nobel Lecture  _The Rare Gases of the Atmosphere_ from Nobelprize.org website
- Biography  Biography from Nobelprize.org website
- Sir William Ramsay School
- Ramsay biography
- Chemical achievers
- Eponymous school
- NNDB Biography
- Web genealogy article on Ramsay
- Chemical genealogy
- victorianweb biography 
- chemeducator biography
- 7/23/1904;This Photograph of Sir William Ramsay Was Taken in His Laboratory Specially for the Scientific American

## Infobox (scientist)

- **honorific prefix**: Sir
- **name**: William Ramsay
- **image**: William Ramsay.jpg
- **caption**: Ramsay in 1904
- **birth place**: Glasgow, Scotland
- **death place**: High Wycombe, England
- **nationality**: British
- **alma mater**: University of Glasgow  (1866–69)
Anderson's University, now University of Strathclyde 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**: Discovering noble gases
Ramsay grease
- **field**: Chemistry
- **work institution**: University of Glasgow (1874–80)
University College, Bristol (1880–87)
University College London (1887–1913)
- **prizes**: Leconte Prize <small>(1895)</small>
Barnard Medal for Meritorious Service to Science <small>(1895)</small>
Davy Medal
Longstaff Prize
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Matteucci Medal <small>(1907)</small>
Elliott Cresson Medal