JOSEPH JOHN THOMSON

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

• His father was a bookseller who planned Thomson to engineer
• He was sent to bide his time at Owens College at age 14
• He worked in the Cavendish Laboratory after graduation
• Quickly he earned a membership prestigious royal Society d was appointed Rayleigh's successor as the Cavendish Professor of physics at the age of 28
• Respected and well known

RESEARCH

• Thomson studied Cathod Rays
• He determined that all matter is made up of tiny particles that are much smaller than atoms
• He originally called these particles corpuscles
• This discovery upended the prevailing theory that the atom was the smallest fundamental unit
• He discover that the neon was of two different kinds of atoms, and proved the existence of isotopes in a stable element

PERSONAL LIFE AND LATER YEARS

• Thomson married Rose Pager, one of his students in 1892
• Paget & Thomson had a daughter, Joan, and a son, George Paget Thomson
• Thomson published 13 books & more than 200 papers in his lifetime
• Thomson was buried in Westminster Abbey near two other influential scientists: Isaac Newton & Charles Darwin

SYNOPSIS

• Thomson was born on December 18, 1856
• He was born in Cheetham, England
• Research in cathode rays led to his discovery of the electrons
• He won the 1906 Nobel prize in physics
• Thomson died August 30, 1940

SITES

• http://www.biography.com/people/jj-thomson-40039