Joseph J. Thomson was an English Physicist, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the electron. The properties of electricity and atom in the 19th Century was changed by the Findings of Thompson. Thompson was knighted in 1908. Rutherford was a student of Thompson. His professional life was based in Cambridge. His son George also was awarded the Noble Prize in Physics in 1937 for his contributions to the understanding of the wave nature of electrons. Since 1918 to his death in 1940, Thompson was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. He remains buried close to Sir Isaac Newton at Westminster Abbey.

Thompson was an ardent believer in God as well. Thomson concluded his inaugural address to the British Association in 1909 with the following worlds: “As we conquer peak after peak we see in front of us regions full of interest and beauty, but we do not see our goal, we do not see the horizon; in the distance tower still higher peaks, which will yield to those who ascend them still wider prospects, and deepen the feeling, the truth of which is emphasized by every advance in science, that ‘Great are the Works of the Lord’.” His words have been publishes literally by the Nature Magazine in 2009.

His student Sir Owen Richardson, another Nobel laureate in Physics in 1928, speaks of his teacher in the following words: “He was sincerely religious, … who every day knelt in private prayer, a habit known only to Lady Thomson until near the end of his life.” His biographer Raymond Seeger says, “As a Professor, J.J. Thomson did attend the Sunday evening college chapel service, and as Master, the morning service. He was a regular communicant in the Anglican Church. In addition, he showed an active interest in the Trinity Mission at Camberwell. With respect to his private devotional life, J.J. Thomson would invariably practice kneeling for daily prayer, and read his Bible before retiring each night. He truly was a practicing Christian!”