Wilhelm Rontgen was a pioneering German physicist, known for his accidental discovery of X-rays, which transformed the world of medicine and science forever. His discovery opened a new realm of possibilities in diagnostics that allowed doctors to see, learn and understand the internal human structure, earning him the first-ever Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901. Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen was born on March 27, 1895, at Lennep in the Lower Rhine Province of Germany. When he was three, his family moved to Apeldoorn in the Netherlands. He finished his schooling at Utrecht Technical School in the Netherlands. In 1869, he completed his PhD at the University of Zurich, with interests in engineering and physics.