History of The Atom

By Smaccz
  • 460 BCE

    Democritus

    Democritus (460 BC to 370 BC) was an ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher who studied under Leucippus in Thrace. His influential work involves his atomic theory of the universe, which led to his being considered the father of modern science.

  • Antoine Lavoisier

    Antoine Lavoisier (August 26, 1743 to May 8, 1794) was a French nobleman who is considered to this day to be the father of modern chemistry. His work was crucial in a period of discovery that is now known as the Chemical Revolution, or even the First Chemical Revolution.

  • John Dalton

    British chemist John Dalton was born in Eaglesfield, England, on September 6, 1766, to a Quaker family. He had two surviving siblings. Both he and his brother were born color-blind. Dalton's father earned a modest income as a handloom weaver. As a child, Dalton longed for a formal education, but his family was very poor. It was clear that he would need to help out with the family finances from a young age.

  • J. J. Thomson

    Sir Joseph John "J. J." Thomson, OM, FRS (December 18, 1856 to August 30, 1940) was an English physicist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1906 for the discovery of the electron and his work on the electrical conductivity of gases.

  • Max Planck

    Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck, FRS (April 23, 1858 to October 4, 1947) was a German theoretical physicist. He originated quantum theory for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918.

  • Ernest Rutherford

    Ernest Rutherford (August 30, 1871 to October 19, 1937), also known by his conferred title The Right Honourable Lord Rutherford of Nelson, First Baron Rutherford of Nelson, was a British physicist who was born in New Zealand. He is considered to be the father of nuclear physics.

  • Albert Einstein

    Albert Einstein was born on the 14th of March 1879 and died on the 18th of April 1955.
    Born in Germany to a Jewish family, Einstein made many contributions to the field of theoretical physics.

  • Niels Bohr

    Niels Bohr (October 7, 1885 to November 18, 1962) was a Danish physicist and philosopher who is best known for his contributions to the understanding of quantum physics and atomic structure. He was also a huge proponent of scientific research, including the best practices and sharing of information.

  • Erwin Schrodinger

    Erwin Schrödinger (August 12, 1887 to January 4, 1961) was an Austrian physicist whose research was instrumental in the modern understanding of quantum theory. He is still referred to as the father of quantum physics.

  • James Chadwick

    Sir James Chadwick, CH, FRS (October 20, 1891 to July 24, 1974) was an English physicist. In 1941 he wrote the final draft of the Military Application of Uranium Detonation Report, which inspired President Roosevelt to create the Manhattan Project government and he was the head of the British team that worked it.

  • Louis De Broglie

    Louis-Victor-Pierre-Raymond, 7th duc de Broglie (August 15, 1892 to March 19, 1987) was a French physicist. His 1924 PhD thesis he announced the wave nature of electrons and suggested that all matter has wave properties. The de Broglie hypothesis is central to the theory of quantum mechanics.

  • Werner Heisenberg

    Werner Karl Heisenberg (December 5, 1901 to February 1, 1976) was a German theoretical physicist. He was a pioneer of quantum mechanics. He was awarded the 1932 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the creation of quantum mechanics, the application of which has, inter alia, led to the discovery of the allotropic forms of hydrogen."

  • Marie Curie

    Marie Curie was a physicist and chemist and a pioneer in the study of radiation. She and her husband, Pierre, discovered the elements polonium and radium. Together, they were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903, and she received another one, for Chemistry, in 1911. Her work with radioactive materials doomed her, however. She died of a blood disease in 1934.

  • Robert Millikan

    American physicist Robert A. Millikan's achievements began when he was the first to received a PhD from the physics department at Columbia University.
    American physicist Robert A. Millikan is best known for measuring the charge on the electron, for which he won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1923.