Wilhelm Rontgen was an eminent German physicist who won the first Nobel Prize in Physics, for the discovery of X-rays. Though many scientists had detected the X-rays even before Rontgen, he was the first person who discovered and systematically studied the X-rays. Born into a family of cloth merchants, he was neither brilliant nor an attentive student in his childhood; rather he was keenly interested in nature during his younger years. After being expelled from the school, he became an irregular student and it was only after he came under the guidance of Professor Kundt, he discovered his defining passion and true talent. He served as a professor of physics at many universities before discovering the Rontgen rays which later became known as “X-rays”. Apart from it, he also conducted researches in various other branches of physics including elasticity, capillarity, conduction of heat in crystals, the absorption of heat-rays by different gases, piezoelectricity and the electromagnetic rotation of polarized light. A multifaceted genius, his greatest gift to mankind is considered to be the discovery of the X-rays which also earned him the first ever ‘Nobel Prize in Physics’. Through his discovery, he revolutionized the entire medical profession and set the foundation for diagnostic radiology. Today, he is considered the father of diagnostic radiology, the medical field which uses imaging to diagnose disease.