Roentgen, Wilhelm Konrad
Roentgen (or Röntgen), (German: -), Wilhelm Konrad (1845-1923), a German physicist. For his discovery of X rays, a major milestone in the history of physics and an important contribution to medical science, Roentgen was awarded the first Nobel Prize for physics (1901).
Roentgen was born in Prussia and educated in the Netherlands and Switzerland. He taught physics and mathematics at various German universities. He was the director of the Physical Institute at the University of Wiirzburg in 1895 when he discovered X rays. Roentgen observed that crystals of a barium compound glowed when placed near a tube through which an electric current was passing. Further investigation showed that the glow was caused by radiation that had the power to pass through substances opaque to ordinary light. Since he did not know the nature of this radiation, Roentgen called it X rays.
Roentgen taught at the University of Munich from 1899 until his death.