who received the first nobel prize in physics
List of Nobel laureates in Physics The first Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded in 1901 to Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, of Germany, who received 150,782 SEK, which is equal to 7,731,004 SEK in December 2007. John Bardeen is the only laureate to win the prize twice—in 1956 and 1972. Maria Skłodowska-Curie also won two Nobel Prizes, for physics in 1903 and chemistry in 1911. William Lawrence Bragg was, until October 2014, the youngest ever Nobel laureate; he won the prize in 1915 at the age of 25.[5] Two women have won the prize: Curie and Maria Goeppert-Mayer (1963).[6] As of 2016, the prize has been awarded to 203 individuals. There have been six years in which the Nobel Prize in Physics was not awarded (1916, 1931, 1934, 1940–1942).
Atom The physicist J. J. Thomson measured the mass of cathode rays, showing they were made of particles, but were around 1800 times lighter than the lightest atom, hydrogen. Therefore, they were not atoms, but a new particle, the first subatomic particle to be discovered, which he originally called "corpuscle" but was later named electron, after particles postulated by George Johnstone Stoney in 1874. He also showed they were identical to particles given off by photoelectric and radioactive materials.[9] It was quickly recognized that they are the particles that carry electric currents in metal wires, and carry the negative electric charge within atoms. Thomson was given the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physics for this work. Thus he overturned the belief that atoms are the indivisible, ultimate particles of matter.[10] Thomson also incorrectly postulated that the low mass, negatively charged electrons were distributed throughout the atom in a uniform sea of positive charge. This became known as the plum pudding model.