John William Rayleigh was born in Lanford Grove, near Maldon, England in 1842. He was educated at Cambridge University. From 1879 to 1884, Rayleigh was professor of physics at Cambridge and director of the Cavendish Laboratory (named for Henry Cavendish). From 1887 to 1905 he was professor of natural philosophy at the Royal Institution in London. Rayleigh was appointed chancellor of Cambridge University in 1908.
Rayleigh is best known for his study of vibrations and waves, including the propagation of sound, the theory of scattering, and the theory of traveling waves. He received the De Morgan Medal of the London Mathematical Society (named for Augustus De Morgan) in 1890. In addition, Rayleigh discovered the inert gas Argon in 1895, receiving the Nobel prize for the discovery in 1904. In probability, Rayleigh's name is associated with a distribution that belongs to the Weibull family.