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William Ramsay
1852–1916 · United Kingdom · Born in the 1800s
Nobel Chemistry 1904
Discovered the noble gases neon, krypton and xenon, co-discovered argon and identified helium on Earth.
Nobel Prize work
Nobel 1904 “in recognition of his services in the discovery of the inert gaseous elements in air, and his determination of their place in the periodic system.” With Lord Rayleigh he isolated argon from air, then with Morris Travers found neon, krypton and xenon by fractional distillation of liquid air, and he confirmed terrestrial helium. These discoveries added an entire new column of unreactive noble gases to the periodic table.