Charles Thomson Rees Wilson

Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (14 February 1869 – 15 November 1959) was a Scottish physicist and meteorologist. His invention of the cloud chamber made him win the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physics.

 Biography 
Wilson was born to John Wilson and Annie Clerk Harper in the parish of Glencorse, Midlothian. After his father's death in 1873, his family moved to Manchester. He studied biology at Owen's College to become a doctor. He then joined Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge to study Physics and Chemistry.

Wilson later became interested in meteorology, and in 1893 he began to study clouds and their properties. He worked at the observatory on Ben Nevis mountain to observe cloud formation. He then tried to replicate this effect at smaller scale in his laboratory in Cambridge, by causing moist air to expand in a sealed container. He then experimented with creating cloud trails in containers by ions and radiation. He was awarded the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physics for his invention of the cloud chamber.

 Personal life 
Wilson married Jessie Fraser in 1908. They had four children. He died on November 15, 1959 near Edinburgh.

 Awards and Honors 

 Member of the Royal Society in 1900
 Hughes Medal of 1911
 Hopkins Prize, Cambridge Philosophical Society, 1920
 Gunning Prize, Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1921
 Royal Medal of the Royal Society of London, 1922
 Howard N. Potts Medal 1925
 1927 Nobel Prize in Physics
 The Franklin Medal of 1929
 Copley Medal 1935.
 The Wilson crater on the Moon is named after him, jointly with Alexander Wilson and Ralph Elmer Wilson.
 The Wilson Cloud, a dense cloud that forms during a large explosion (e.g. a nuclear weapon explosion) is named after him.
 The Wilson Society, an association of natural scientists at Sidney Sussex College, is named after him.
 Charles Thomson Rees Wilson's personal archive is maintained by the Archives of the University of Glasgow (GUAS)

 Other websites 

 Nobelprize.org, Nobel Prize in Physics 1927
 Charles Thomson Rees Wilsons biography   

Category:British Nobel Prize winners
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society
Category:Scottish physicists
Category:Scottish chemists
Category:Nobel Prize in Physics winners
Category:1959 deaths
Category:1869 births