Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was born on 27-03-1845, 150 years ago, in Lennep- Remscheid in Westphalen, Germany, from a German father and a Dutch mother. He remained an only child. When he was 3 years old, the family moved to Apeldoom in the Netherlands. His parental home exists and will be the Röntgen bar. After going to school in Apeldoorn, he went to a technical school in Utrecht, where he finished in 1865. He enrolled in the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, but found that he did not have the right certificates to pass the examinations. He then went to Zurich to the newly stifted Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, where restrictions were less severe. In 18869, he got his doctorate on ‘Thermodynamics of gases.’ He was a brilliant student with a wide variety of interests.