1875+to+1900

Henri Becquerel (Dec 15, 1852-Aug 25, 1908)



 Becquerel was apart of a family that had four generations of scientists. In 1892 he was the third person in his family to hold the physics chair seat at the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle. Two years later he became the chief engineer for the department of bridges and highways. His big scientific discovery was in 1896. It was then that he discovered radioactivity.  He discovered radioactivity as he was looking at phosphorescence in uranium salts. He had photographic plates that usually were put in the sun to cause them to save a picture of some sort. But this time he wrapped them up and put them in his drawer till the next days experiment. That next day he saw the plates had been exposed with no interaction with sunlight. This led him to investigate nuclear radiation as well. In 1903 he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Pierre and Marie Curie.

Wilhelm Rontgen (Mar 27, 1845-Feb 10, 1923)

 Rontgen was born in Prussia, but when he was little moved and was raised in the Netherlands. He went to school and graduated college with a Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering. Later he taught as a professor and held the physics chair at University of Wurzburg. He spent most of his career in Munich.

He was the first person to produce and detect electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength. Today these are called “x-rays.”(1895) Two weeks after he discovered x-rays he took a picture of his wife’s hand.

Marie Curie ( November 7, 1867 – July 4,1934)

She was of polish decent and was a physicist and chemist. She also was a pioneer in the radioactivity field. Marie won two Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry. She was the first female professor at the University of Paris. Curie also founded the Curie Institutes in Paris.

 Her biggest achievement was the creation of the theory of Radioactivity. Leading to the discovery of two new elements Polonium and Radium, from this came the worlds first studies into neoplasm's using radioactive isotopes (which where different kinds of cancer). Her family also carried the name with her husband sharing one of her Nobel prizes in physics. Also her daughter Irene and son in law Frederic where awarded a Nobel prize.