Rutherford, Baron
Rutherford of Nelson, Ernest Rutherford, First Baron (1871-1937), a British physicist. Rutherford's work with atomic theory and radiation—for which he was awarded the 1908 Nobel Prize in chemistry—helped lay the foundations of nuclear physics.
By 1902 Rutherford and Frederick Soddy had established the existence of alpha and beta particles and gamma rays given off during the radioactive transformation of an element such as thorium. Rutherford identified the alpha particle as being identical with the nucleus of a helium atom. He also determined the nature of radioactive decay
In 1911 Rutherford discovered that the atom is not a solid mass, as had been thought previously. His theory states that an atom is composed of electrons revolving around a nucleus. In 1919 Rutherford produced the first artificial transmutation of elements. He bombarded the nucleus of a nitrogen isotope with alpha particles and obtained an isotope of oxygen and a proton. In 1934 he first produced tritium, the heaviest hydrogen isotope (H3).
Rutherford was born in Nelson, New Zealand, the son of a farmer. After attending the University of New Zealand, he went to England in 1895 to do research at Cambridge University under the physicist J. J. Thomson. Rutherford taught physics at McGill University in Canada, 1898-1907. From 1907 to 1919 he was a professor at Manchester University. Rutherford became professor of physics and director of the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge in 1919. The following year he also became a professor at the Royal Institution. He was president of the Royal Society, 1925-30. He was knighted in 1914 and made a baron in 1931.
Among books written by Rutherford are: Radioactive Transformations (1906); The Electrical Structure of Matter (1926); The Artificial Transmutation of Elements (1933); The Newer Alchemy (1937).