1842-1919

English physicist who inherited the title of Baron Rayleigh at age 31 and is almost always referred to as Lord Rayleigh in scientific works. Despite appreciable wealth and social standing, Strutt worked steadily, doing research in every area of physics. He published 430 scientific papers and The Theory of Sound, a highly influential two-volume treatise on sound. He succeeded James Clerk Maxwell as Cavendish Professor of Physics at Cambridge and received the Nobel Prize in 1904 for the discovery of argon.