Democritus 

first proposed the idea that all matter was made up of The Curies (Marie and Peirre)
tiny indivisible particles called atomos
discovered two other radioactive elements, polonium
 and radium

Antoine Lavoisier Ernest Rutherford

determined the Law of Conservation of Matter by performed the gold foil experiment, determined
extensive experimentation that atoms contained a very small, positively
charged core at the center, called this core the
 nucleus, came up with the nuclear model of the
atom (with electrons orbiting around the nucleus)
Joseph Proust

determined the law of constant composition
(compounds always contain the same proportion, by Henry Moseley
mass, of elements)
found that all atoms of a given element contained
 the same number of protons in the nucleus

John Dalton 

formulated an atomic theory of matter with 4 Niels Bohr

postulates:
1. Elements are composted of small particles called developed the quantized orbit model of the atom,
atoms. electrons can only reside in certain energy levels
2. All atoms of a given element are identical. *
3. Atoms are neither created nor destroyed in chemical 
reactions.
4. Compounds always contain the same proportion of Erwin Schroedinger
elements.
expanded the idea that electrons behaved as
 particles AND waves, this developed the
quantum mechanical model of the atom
J.J. Thompson

performed a CRT experiment and determined that the
ray was composed of negative particles, call these James Chadwick
electrons, determined the mass-charge ratio for an
electron, came up with the "plum pudding" model of discovered the neutron
the atom



Robert Millikan

performed an "oil-drop" experiment, determined the

charge of one electron and using the known mass-
charge ratio, was able to calculate the mass on one
electron (9.11x10^-28g)