Sir William Ramsay (2 October 1852 – 23 July 1916) was a Scottish chemist who discovered the
noble gases and received the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1904 "in recognition of his services in the discovery of the inert gaseous elements in air" (along with his collaborator,
Lord Rayleigh, who received the
Nobel Prize in Physics that same year for their discovery of
argon). After the two men identified argon, Ramsay investigated other atmospheric gases. His work in isolating argon, helium, neon, krypton and xenon led to the development of a new section of the periodic table.