A British scientist born as John William Strutt. He studied mathematics at Cambridge and was appointed professor of experimental physics and head of the Cavendish laboratory at Cambridge in 1879. He succeeded to the barony on the death of his father in 1873. He was appointed professor of natural philosophy at the Royal Institution until 1905, was president of the Royal Society between 1905 and 1908, and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1904. His contribution to science covered many aspects of physics including optics, vibrating systems, sound, wave theory, colour vision, electrodynamics, electromagnetism, light scattering, flow of liquids, hydrodynamics, density of gases, viscosity, capillarity, elasticity, and photography. He published extensively and contributed to the Encyclopaedia Britannica.