Ramsay, Sir William

Ramsay, Sir William (1852-1916), British chemist, best known for his work in the isolation of elemental gases from the atmosphere. Ramsay was born in Glasgow, and educated at the universities of Glasgow and Tübingen. He served as Professor of Chemistry at the University of Bristol from 1880 to 1887 and at the University of London from 1887 until 1913. He was awarded the 1904 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. In 1895 he became the first to successfully isolate helium from terrestrial sources. Ramsay also discovered argon (in collaboration with Lord Rayleigh), neon, krypton, and xenon and contributed to the discovery that helium is a product of the atomic disintegration of radium.