The discovery of x rays, which Kölliker later renamed “Roentgen rays”; the foundation stone of the science of roentgenology. English translation in Nature, (February,) 1896, 53, 274 and 377. See also Röntgen’s third paper on the subject: Weitere Beobachtungen über die Eigenschaften der X-Strahlen. Sitzber. K. Preuss. Akad. Wiss., Ber., Kl. Phys.-Math., 1897, 576-592. Facsimile reprint of all three papers, English translation, and bibliography in H. Klickstein, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen on a new kind of rays. A bibliographical study, 2 vols., 1966.

In 1901 Röntgen was awarded the first Nobel Prize in Physics "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of the remarkable rays subsequently named after him."