| 1895 | Roentgen | x-rays |
| 1897 | Thomson | discovery of electron |
| 1898 | Mme. Curie | radioactive polonium and radium |
| 1901 | Planck | blackbody radiation |
| 1905 | Einstein | photoelectric effect |
| 1911 | Rutherford | model of atom |
| 1913 | Bohr | quantum theory of spectra |
| 1922 | Compton | scattering of photons off electrons |
| 1924 | Pauli | exclusion principle |
| 1925 | deBroglie | matter waves |
| 1926 | Schroedinger | wave equation |
| 1927 | Heisenberg | uncertainty principle |
| 1927 | Davisson and Germer | wave properties of electrons |
| 1927 | Born | interpretation of wave function |
| 1928 | Dirac | relativistic wave equation, positron |