Wilson was born in the parish of Glencorse, Midlothian to Annie Clark Harper and John Wilson, a sheep farmer. After his father died in 1873, he moved with his family to Manchester. With financial support from his step-brother he … See more

He became particularly interested in meteorology, and in 1893 he began to study clouds and their properties. Beginning in 1894, he worked for some time at the observatory on Ben Nevis, where he made observations of cloud formation. He was particularly … See more

Wilson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1900.
For the invention of the cloud chamber he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927. He shared this prize … See more

In 1908, Wilson married Jessie Fraser, the daughter of a minister from Glasgow. The couple had four children. His family knew him as patient and curious, and fond of taking walks in the … See more

The invention of the cloud chamber was by far Wilson's signature accomplishment, earning him the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1927. The … See more

Retrospectively, Wilson's experimental method has received some attention from scholars.
In a period of scientific inquiry characterized by a divide between "analytical" and "morphological" scientists, Wilson's method of … See more