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| Born | (1871-08-30)August 30, 1871 Brightwater, New Zealand |
| Died | October 19, 1937(1937-10-19) (aged 66) Cambridge, England |
| Nationality | New Zealand |
| Alma mater | University of Canterbury Cambridge University |
| Known for | Father of nuclear physics Rutherford model Rutherford scattering Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy Discovery of proton Rutherford (unit) Coined the term 'artificial disintegration' |
| Awards | Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1908) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics |
| Institutions | McGill University University of Manchester |
| Academic advisors | J. J. Thomson |
| Notable students | Mark Oliphant Patrick Blackett Hans Geiger Niels Bohr Otto Hahn Cecil Powell Teddy Bullard Pyotr Kapitsa John Cockcroft Ernest Walton Charles Drummond Ellis James Chadwick Ernest Marsden Edward Andrade Frederick Soddy Edward Victor Appleton Bertram Boltwood Kazimierz Fajans Charles Galton Darwin Henry Moseley A. J. B. Robertson George Laurence Robert William Boyle |
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Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, OM, PC, FRS (30 August 1871 – 19 October 1937) was a New Zealand physicist who became known as the father of nuclear physics. He pioneered the orbital theory of the atom through his discovery of Rutherford scattering off the nucleus with his gold foil experiment. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908.
Early years
Ernest Rutherford was the son of James Rutherford, a farmer, and his wife Martha (born Thompson, originally from Hornchurch, Essex, England). James had emigrated from Perth, Scotland, "to raise a little flax and a lot of children". Ernest was born at Spring Grove (now Brightwater), near Nelson, New Zealand. His first name was mistakenly spelt Earnest when his birth was registered. He studied at Havelock School and then Nelson College and won a scholarship to study at Canterbury College, University of New Zealand where he was president of the debating society, among other things. After gaining his BA, MA and BSc, and doing two years of research at the forefront of electrical technology, in 1895 Rutherford travelled to England for postgraduate study at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge (1895–1898), and he briefly held the world record for the distance over which electromagnetic waves could be detected. During the investigation of radioactivity he coined the terms alpha and beta to describe the two distinct types of radiation emitted by thorium and uranium.
Middle years
In 1898 Rutherford was appointed to the chair of physics at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where he did the work that gained him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908. In 1900 he gained a DSc from the University of New Zealand, and from 1900 to 1903 he was joined at McGill by the young Frederick Soddy (Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1921) and they collaborated on research into the transmutation of elements. Rutherford had demonstrated that radioactivity was the spontaneous disintegration of atoms. He noticed that a sample of radioactive material invariably took the same amount of time for half the sample to decay – its "half-life" – and created a practical application using this constant rate of decay as a clock, which could then be used to help determine the age of the Earth, which turned out to be much older than most of the scientists at the time believed.
In 1900 he married Mary Georgina Newton (1876-1945); they had one daughter, Eileen Mary (1901-1930), who married Ralph Fowler.
In 1907 Rutherford took the chair of physics at the University of Manchester. There along with Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden he carried out the Geiger-Marsden experiment, which demonstrated the nuclear nature of atoms. It was his interpretation of this experiment that led him to the Rutherford model of the atom, with a very small positively-charged nucleus orbited by electrons. In 1919 he became the first person to transmute one element into another when he converted nitrogen into oxygen through a nuclear reaction N(α,p)O. In 1921, while working with Niels Bohr (who postulated that electrons moved in specific orbits), Rutherford theorized about the existence of neutrons, which could somehow compensate for the repelling effect of the positive charges of protons by causing an attractive nuclear force and thus keeping the nuclei from breaking apart. Rutherford's theory of neutrons was proved in 1932 by his associate James Chadwick, who in 1935 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery.
Later years
He was knighted in 1914. In 1919 he returned to the Cavendish as Director. Under him, Nobel Prizes were awarded to Chadwick for discovering the neutron (in 1932), Cockcroft and Walton for an experiment which was to be known as splitting the atom using a particle accelerator, and Appleton for demonstrating the existence of the ionosphere. He was admitted to the Order of Merit in 1925 and in 1931 was created Baron Rutherford of Nelson, of Cambridge in the County of Cambridge, a title that became extinct upon his unexpected death in hospital following an operation for an umbilical hernia (1937). Since he was a peer, British protocol required that he be operated on by a titled doctor, and the delay cost him his life. He is interred in Westminster Abbey alongside J. J. Thomson.
Legacy
Rutherford's research, along with that of his protégé Sir Mark Oliphant, was instrumental in the convening of the Manhattan Project to develop the first nuclear weapons.
Many items bear Rutherford's name in honour of his life and work:
- Scientific discoveries
- the element rutherfordium, Rf, Z=104. (1997)
- craters on Mars and the Moon
- Institutions
- Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, a scientific research laboratory near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, UK.
- Rutherford College, a school in Auckland, New Zealand
- Rutherford College, a college at the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK
- the Rutherford Institute for Innovation at the University of Cambridge, UK
- Rutherford Intermediate School, Wanganui, New Zealand
- Buildings
- a building of the modern Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, UK
- The Ernest Rutherford Physics Building at McGill University, Montreal, Canada
- a physics classroom in Portsmouth Grammar School, Hampshire, UK.
- the physics and chemistry building at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand
- The Coupland Building at the University of Manchester where Rutherford worked was renamed The Rutherford Building in 2006
- The Rutherford lecture theatre in the Schuster building at the University of Manchester
- Halls of residence
- Rutherford Residence Hall at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, NJ, USA.
- a student hall at Loughborough University, Leicestershire, UK.
- Rochester and Rutherford Hall, a boarding house at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
- at Cashmere High School, Christchurch, New Zealand
- at Corran School for Girls, Auckland, New Zealand
- at Island School, Hong Kong
- at Macleans College, Auckland, New Zealand
- at Mount Roskill Grammar School, Auckland, New Zealand
- at Nelson College, New Zealand, his own high school
- at Rangiora High School, Rangiora, New Zealand
- at Rangitoto College, Auckland, New Zealand
- at Shirley Boys' High School, Christchurch, New Zealand
- at St Andrews College, Christchurch, New Zealand
- at Stepney Green School, London, England
- at Tanjong Katong Secondary School, Singapore
- at Waimea College, Richmond, New Zealand
- at Westburn School in Christchurch
- Major streets
- Rutherford Close, a residential street in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, UK.
- Lord Rutherford Road in Brightwater, New Zealand - his birthplace.
- Rutherford Road in the biotech district of Carlsbad, California, USA.
- Rutherford Street in Nelson, New Zealand.
- Other
- The Rutherford Award at Thomas Carr College for excellence in VCE Chemistry, Australia
- Image on New Zealand $100 note.
- Rutherford was the subject of a play by Stuart Hoar.
- On the side of the Mond Laboratory on the site of the original Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, there is an engraving in Rutherford's memory in the form of a crocodile, this being the nickname given to him by its commissioner, his colleague Peter Kapitza. The initials of the engraver, Eric Gill, are visible within the mouth.
Publications
- Radio-activity (1904), 2nd ed. (1905), ISBN 978-1-60355-058-1
- Radioactive Transformations (1906), ISBN 978-160355-054-3
- Radiations from Radioactive Substances (1919)
- The Electrical Structure of Matter (1926)
- The Artificial Transmutation of the Elements (1933)
- The Newer Alchemy (1937)
See also
References
- McLintock, A.H. (18 September 2007). "Rutherford, Sir Ernest (Baron Rutherford of Nelson, O.M., F.R.S.)". An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand (1966 ed.). Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. ISBN 9780478184518. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
- Campbell, John (22 June 2007). "Rutherford, Ernest 1871-1937". The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Vol. 3 (1996 ed.). New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage,. ISBN 0478184514. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
{{cite encyclopedia}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) - D.A. Ramsay (2001). "Book review of Rutherford, Scientist Supreme by J. Campbell". ISI Short Book Reviews. International Statistical Institute. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
- Michael Freemantle (2003). "ACS Article on Rutherfordium". Chemical & Engineering News. American Chemical Society. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
- "ErnestRutherford Physics Building". Virtual McGill. McGill University. 24 January 2000. Retrieved 2008-04-02.
Further reading
- R.H. Cragg (1971). "Lord Ernest Rutherford of Nelson (1871-1937)". Royal Institute of Chemistry Reviews. 4 (4): 129–145. doi:10.1039/RR9710400129.
- E. Marsden (1954). "The Rutherford Memorial Lecture, 1954. Rutherford-His Life and Work, 1871-1937". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A. 226 (1166): 283–305. doi:10.1098/rspa.1954.0254.
External links
- Biography from Nobel prize official website
- Nobel Lecture The Chemical Nature of the Alpha Particles from Radioactive Substances
- The Rutherford Museum
- Rutherford Scientist Supreme
- Profile from American Public Broadcasting Service
- Profile from The New Zealand Edge
- Annotated bibliography for Ernest Rutherford from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
- Dictionary of New Zealand Biography
- Biography in 1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand
- Rutherford at Canterbury University College from The Rutherford Journal
- Rutherford's Timebomb Article on Rutherford's contribution to dating the Age of the Earth
- BBC Radio 4: In Our Time - Rutherford
- The Rutherford Collection at his alma mater the University of Canterbury
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded byNew Creation | Baron Rutherford of Nelson 1931-1937 |
Succeeded byExtinct |
- Experimental physicists
- Nuclear physicists
- New Zealand chemists
- New Zealand physicists
- Radio pioneers
- Nobel laureates in Chemistry
- McGill University faculty
- Presidents of the Royal Society
- Fellows of the Royal Society
- Fellows of the Leopoldina
- Members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences
- Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
- University of Canterbury alumni
- Academics of the Victoria University of Manchester
- Members of the Order of Merit
- Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
- Knights Bachelor
- Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
- People from Nelson Region
- New Zealanders of English descent
- New Zealanders of Scottish descent
- British people of New Zealand descent
- Burials at Westminster Abbey
- 1871 births
- 1937 deaths