Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (14 February 1869 – 15 November 1959) was a Scottish physicist and meteorologist who shared the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physics with Arthur Compton for his invention of the cloud chamber.

With financial support from his step-brother he studied biology at Owens College, now the University of Manchester, with the intent of becoming a doctor.

[7] He then tried to reproduce this effect on a smaller scale at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, expanding humid air within a sealed container.

[5] The Cavendish laboratory praised him for the creation of "a novel and striking method of investigating the properties of ionized gases".

[18] Weather was a focus of his work throughout his career, from his early observations at Ben Nevis to his final paper, on thunderclouds.

While some scientists believed phenomena should be observed in pure nature, others proposed laboratory-controlled experiments as the premier method for inquiry.

[11] He used his cloud chamber in various ways to demonstrate the operating principles of things like subatomic particles and X-rays.

[7][5] He shared this prize with the American physicist Arthur Compton, rewarded for his work on the particle nature of radiation.

[24] The Wilson Condensation Cloud formations that occur after large explosions, such as nuclear detonations, are named after him.

[27] in 1996, a blue plaque in Wilson's honour was installed in a specially built cairn at Flotterstone, close to Wilson't birthplace at Crosshouse Farm.