The British chemist and educator Sir William Ramsay (1852-1916) discovered the rare gases and did important work in thermodynamics.

William Ramsay was born at Queen's Crescent, Glasgow, on Oct. 2, 1852. Both his father, a civil engineer, William Ramsay, and his mother, Catharine Robertson Ramsay, came from families noted for scientific attainment. Ramsay studied the classics, mathematics, and literature at the University of Glasgow (1866-1869) and then entered Robert Tatlock's laboratory while attending scientific lectures at the university. In 1870 he joined Robert Bunsen at Heidelberg, but he left there in 1871 to work with Rudolf Fittig at Tübingen, where he received the doctorate in 1872. On his return to Glasgow he became an assistant at Anderson's College and later an assistant in the department of chemistry at the University of Glasgow. University College, Bristol, appointed him professor of chemistry in 1880 and principal in 1881. In 1887 he succeeded Alexander W. Williamson to...