John Rayleigh

John Rayleigh (1842-1919), British mathematician, physicist, and Nobel laureate, known for his research in wave phenomena. Rayleigh was born in Lanford Grove, near Maldon, Essex, and educated at the University of Cambridge. He served as Professor of Experimental Physics and director of the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge from 1879 to 1884 and as Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institution, London, from 1887 to 1905. He became chancellor of the University of Cambridge in 1908.

Rayleigh engaged in research into physical optics, light, colour, and electricity, the dynamics of resonance, and vibrations of gases and elastic solids. He was also responsible for the determination of electrical units of measurement. In 1894 he and the British chemist Sir William Ramsay discovered the inert element argon. For this discovery Rayleigh was awarded the 1904 Nobel Prize for Physics; Ramsay won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in the same year.