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He was born in March, 1845. His father worked as a textile dealer in Lenep (Prusia). When he was three years old, all the family moved to Holland. At the age of sixteen, he joined the Utrecht Technical School, and he lived with Jan Willem Guning, a famous Chemist. He was wrongly accused of making jokes and this lead to his expulsion. When he was twenty years old, he arrived in Zurich, and he could start his studies in Mechanical Engineering. He obtained his degree in 1869. At that time, Professor August Kundt replaced Julius Clausius, and Rontgen was assigned as a lecturer. In 1872, Rontgen moved to Estrasburgo. During 1874, he worked in several areas, making his research basically in the thermal conductivity of gases. In those days, he worked as an assistant. In this stage of his life, he began to work in the Physics Institute, as a Principal. He developed an intense activity, since he had a good budget for research activities. During 1894, he was working as a full professor in Würzwug; he was quite popular among professors and he became Chancellor. Despite this administrative position, he was able to carry out a lot of experiments: in fact, at that time he began to work with vacuum tubes, and he discovered X-ray radiation, of course, by accident. He was working with cathodic rays when he realized that a special sheet placed in another location, emitted a strange light. It was the first step to discover X-ray and their possibilities. Of course, before he discovered them, other people had experimented with X-ray radiation, but without realized what they really had in their hands. In 1901, he won the Nobel Prize in physics, due to X-Ray and their medical applications. Despite this prize, which he donated to University, he died without money in 1923. His research activities were continued by his students, and many other applications were developed