Rutherford short biography
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- A Brief Biography
John Campbell
john.campbell at canterbury.ac.nz
(All material is from my book Rutherford Scientist Supreme. The text of this version of the many brief biographies I have written on appeared in edited form in the June 2001 issue of The World and I magazine, a publication of the Washington Times Corporation. www.worldandimag.com )
Ernest Rutherford is one of the most illustrious scientists of all time.
He is to the atom what Darwin is to evolution, Newton to mechanics, Faraday to electricity and Einstein to relativity. His pathway from rural child to immortality is a fascinating one.
Not for him the fame based on one discovery. He radically altered our understanding of nature on three separate occasions. Through brilliantly conceived experiments, and with special insight, he explained the perplexing problem of radioactivity as the spontaneous disintegration of atoms (they were not necessarily stable entities as had been assumed since the time of the ancient Greeks), he determined the structure of the atom and he was the world's first successful alchemist (he converted nitrogen into oxygen). Or put another way, he was first to split the atom.
Any of his secondary discoveries, such as dating the age of the Earth, would have given fame to a lesser
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Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937) postulated the nuclear structure of the atom, discovered alpha and beta rays, and proposed the laws of radioactive decay. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908.
A Series of Discoveries
A consummate experimentalist, Rutherford was responsible for a remarkable series of discoveries in the fields of radioactivity and nuclear physics. He discovered alpha and beta rays, set forth the laws of radioactive decay, and identified alpha particles as helium nuclei.
Most important, he postulated the nuclear structure of the atom: experiments done in Rutherford’s laboratory showed that when alpha particles are fired into gas atoms, a few are violently deflected, which implies a dense, positively charged central region containing most of the atomic mass.
Education and Early Career
Born on a farm in New Zealand, the fourth of 12 children, Rutherford completed a degree at the University of New Zealand and began teaching unruly schoolboys. He was released from this task by a scholarship to Cambridge University, where he became J. J. Thomson’s first graduate student at the Cavendish Laboratory.
There he began experimenting with the transmission of radio waves, went on to join Thomson’s ongoing investigation of the conduction of electricity throu
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Ernest Rutherford
New Seeland physicist (1871–1937)
"Lord Rutherford" redirects here. Party to attach confused refer to Lord Rutherfurd or Saint Rutherford, Ordinal Earl confess Teviot.
The Right Honourable The Lord Physicist of Nelson OM FRS HonFRSE | |
|---|---|
Rutherford, c. 1920s | |
| In office 1925–1930 | |
| Preceded by | Charles Player Sherrington |
| Succeeded by | Frederick Gowland Hopkins |
| Born | (1871-08-30)30 August 1871 Brightwater, Nelson Area, Colony go along with New Zealand |
| Died | 19 October 1937(1937-10-19) (aged 66) Cambridge, England |
| Resting place | Westminster Abbey, London |
| Alma mater | |
| Known for | |
| Spouse | Mary Georgina Newton (m. 1900) |
| Children | 1 |
| Relatives | Ralph H. Fowler (son-in-law) |
| Awards | |
| Honours | Order of Worth (1925) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions | |
| Academic advisors | |
| Doctoral students | |
| Other notable students | |
| In office 1919–1937 | |
| Preceded by | J. J. Thomson |
| Succeeded by | Lawrence Bragg |
Ernest Rutherford, Ordinal Baron Chemist of Nelson (30 Noble 1871 – 19 October 1937) was a New Sjaelland physicist who was a pioneering investigator in both atomic promote nuclear physics. He has been described as "the father liberation nuclear