View source for Biography:Ernest Rutherford

{{Short description|New Zealand physicist (1871–1937)}}
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{{Use New Zealand English|date=August 2016}}
{{Infobox scientist
| honorific-prefix  = The Right Honourable
| name              = The Lord Rutherford of Nelson
| honorific-suffix  = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|OM|PRS|HFRSE}}
| image             = Sir Ernest Rutherford LCCN2014716719 - restoration1.jpg
| image_size        =
| caption           = Rutherford {{circa|1920s}}
| birth_name        = Ernest Rutherford
| birth_date        = {{birth date|df=yes|1871|8|30}}
| birth_place       = Brightwater, Colony of New&nbsp;Zealand
| death_date        = {{nowrap|{{death date and age|df=yes|1937|10|19|1871|8|30}}}}
| death_place       = Cambridge, England
| resting_place     = Westminster Abbey
| citizenship       = <!-- use only when necessary per WP:INFONAT -->
| nationality       = 
| fields            = {{cslist|Radioactivity|[[Physics:Atomic physics|atomic physics]]|[[Physics:Nuclear physics|nuclear physics]]}}
| workplaces        = {{plainlist|
* McGill University
* University of Manchester
* [[Organization:University of Cambridge|University of Cambridge]]
  }}
| alma_mater        = {{plainlist|
* [[Organization:University of New Zealand|University of New Zealand]]
* [[Organization:Cavendish Laboratory|Cavendish Laboratory]], University of Cambridge
  }}
| doctoral_advisor  = <!--There was no PhD at Cambridge until 1919-->
| academic_advisors = {{plainlist|
* Alexander Bickerton
* [[Biography:J. J. Thomson|J. J. Thomson]]<ref name="aps">
{{Cite web|url=https://www.aps.org/programs/outreach/history/historicsites/rutherfordsoddy.cfm |title=Ernest Rutherford and Frederick Soddy |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201041955/https://www.aps.org/programs/outreach/history/historicsites/rutherfordsoddy.cfm |archive-date=1 December 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
  }}
| doctoral_students = {{collapsible list|title={{nobold|''See list''}}
| Nazir Ahmed<ref name=UofPunjab>{{Cite web |title=University of the Punjab - Science |url=http://pu.edu.pk/home/department/55/Department-of-Physics |access-date=2023-09-15 |website=pu.edu.pk |quote="The expedition included Professor James Martin Benade (Professor of Physics at Forman Christian College Lahore) and Dr. Nazir Ahmad (a PhD student of Ernest Rutherford at Cambridge who later on became the First Chairman of Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission in 1956). " |archive-date=2 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231002053440/http://pu.edu.pk/home/department/55/Department-of-Physics |url-status=live }}</ref>
| Norman Alexander
| [[Biography:Edward Victor Appleton|Edward Victor Appleton]]
| Robert William Boyle
| [[Biography:James Chadwick|James Chadwick]]
| [[Biography:Norman Feather|Norman Feather]]
| [[Biography:Alexander McAulay|Alexander McAulay]]
| Cecil Powell
| [[Biography:Henry DeWolf Smyth|Henry DeWolf Smyth]]
| [[Biography:Ernest Walton|Ernest Walton]]
| [[Biography:Evan James Williams|Evan James Williams]]
| C. E. Wynn-Williams
| Yulii Borisovich Khariton
| Zhang Wenyu<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Grodzins |first1=Lee |title=Obituaries: Zhang Wen-Yu |journal=Physics Today |date=February 1994 |volume=47 |issue=2 |page=116 |doi=10.1063/1.2808417 |quote=Zhang studied under Ernest Rutherford in the mid-1930s, receiving his degree from Cambridge University in 1938.|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author1=Zhang Wenyu ({{lang|zh|张文裕}}) |url=https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_2047688 |script-title=zh:高能实验物理学家张文裕：回忆导师卢瑟福生命中的最后两年 |work=thepaper.com |date=28 March 2018 |access-date=12 August 2021 |language=zh |archive-date=12 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812083603/https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_2047688 |url-status=live }}</ref>
  }}
| notable_students  = {{collapsible list|title={{nobold|''See list''}}
| Edward Andrade
| [[Biography:Patrick Blackett|Patrick Blackett]]
| [[Biography:Niels Bohr|Niels Bohr]]
| [[Biography:Bertram Boltwood|Bertram Boltwood]]
| Harriet Brooks
| Teddy Bullard
| [[Biography:John Cockcroft|John Cockcroft]]
| Charles Galton Darwin
| [[Biography:Charles Drummond Ellis|Charles Drummond Ellis]]
| [[Biography:Kazimierz Fajans|Kazimierz Fajans]]
| Thomas Gaskell
| [[Biography:Hans Geiger|Hans Geiger]]
| [[Biography:Otto Hahn|Otto Hahn]]
| [[Biography:Douglas Hartree|Douglas Hartree]]
| [[Biography:Pyotr Kapitsa|Pyotr Kapitsa]]
| Daulat Singh Kothari <!-- verified https://doi.org/10.1007/s12045-020-1037-4 and https://www.researchgate.net/profile/N-Panchapakesan/publication/276326833_Professor_DS_Kothari_and_the_University_of_Delhi/links/5ae4232e458515760abe8c98/Professor-DS-Kothari-and-the-University-of-Delhi.pdf -->
| [[Biography:George Laurence|George Laurence]]
| Iven Mackay
| Ernest Marsden
| [[Biography:Mark Oliphant|Mark Oliphant]]
| Thomas Royds
| [[Biography:Frederick Soddy|Frederick Soddy]]
  }}
| known_for         = {{collapsible list|title={{nobold|''See list''}}
| Discovery of [[Physics:Alpha particle|alpha]] and [[Physics:Beta particle|beta radioactivity]]
| Discovery of [[Physics:Atomic nucleus|atomic nucleus]]
| [[Physics:Proton|Discovery of proton]]
| [[Chemistry:Radon|Discovery of radon]]
| [[Physics:Artificial disintegration|Artificial disintegration]]
| [[Physics:Nuclear transmutation|Nuclear transmutation]]
| [[Physics:Radiometric dating|Radiometric dating]]
| [[Physics:Rutherford scattering|Rutherford scattering]]
| Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy
| [[Physics:Rutherford gold foil experiment|Rutherford gold foil experiment]]
| [[Physics:Rutherford model|Rutherford model]]
| [[Physics:Rutherford (unit)|Rutherford (unit)]]
  }}
| awards            = {{collapsible list|title={{nobold|''See list''}}
| Rumford Medal (1904)
| Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1908)
| Barnard Medal (1910)
| Elliott Cresson Medal (1910)
| Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences (1911)
| [[Physics:Matteucci Medal|Matteucci Medal]] (1913)
| Hector Memorial Medal (1916)
| Dalton Medal (1919)
| [[Physics:Copley Medal|Copley Medal]] (1922)
| Franklin Medal (1924)
| Albert Medal (1928)
| Faraday Medal (1930)
| Wilhelm Exner Medal (1936)
| Faraday Lectureship Prize (1936)
  }}
| spouse            = {{marriage|Mary Georgina Newton|1900|<!-- 1937, ''his death'' -->}}
| children          = 1 <!-- daughter (Eileen Mary Rutherford) -->
| module            = {{Infobox officeholder|embed=yes
| office              = President of the Royal Society
| term_start          = 1925
| term_end            = 1930
| predecessor         = [[Biography:Charles Scott Sherrington|Charles Scott Sherrington]]
| successor           = [[Biography:Frederick Gowland Hopkins|Frederick Gowland Hopkins]]}}
| signature         = ernest rutherford sig.jpg
| footnotes         =  
}}

'''Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|OM|PRS|HFRSE|size=100|sep=,}}<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Eve | first1 = A. S. | last2 = Chadwick | first2 = J. | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1938.0025 | title = Lord Rutherford 1871–1937 | journal = Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society | volume = 2 | issue = 6 | pages = 394 | year = 1938 }}</ref> (30 August 1871&nbsp;– 19 October 1937) was a New Zealand physicist who was a pioneering researcher in both [[Physics:Atomic physics|atomic]] and [[Physics:Nuclear physics|nuclear physics]]. Rutherford has been described as "the father of nuclear physics",<ref name=Father/> and "the greatest [[Physics:Experimental physics|experimentalist]] since [[Biography:Michael Faraday|Michael Faraday]]".<ref name="eb">{{cite web |last1=Badash |first1=Lawrence |title=Ernest Rutherford {{!}} Accomplishments, Atomic Theory, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ernest-Rutherford |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=23 June 2023 |language=en |archive-date=26 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220926002932/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ernest-Rutherford |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1908, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances." He was the first [[Earth:Oceania|Oceania]]n Nobel laureate, and the first to perform the awarded work in Canada.

Rutherford's discoveries include the concept of radioactive [[Physics:Half-life|half-life]], the radioactive element [[Chemistry:Radon|radon]], and the differentiation and naming of [[Physics:Alpha decay|alpha]] and [[Physics:Beta particle|beta radiation]]. Together with Thomas Royds, Rutherford is credited with proving that alpha radiation is composed of [[Chemistry:Helium|helium]] nuclei.<ref name=rutherford.org.nz>{{cite web|last=Campbell|first=John|title=Rutherford – A Brief Biography|url=http://www.rutherford.org.nz/biography.htm|website=Rutherford.org.nz|access-date=4 March 2013|archive-date=12 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200512125601/https://www.rutherford.org.nz/biography.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1080/14786440808636511| title = Spectrum of the radium emanation| journal = Philosophical Magazine| series = Series 6| volume = 16| issue = 92| pages = 313| year = 1908| last1 = Rutherford| first1 = E.| last2 = Royds| first2 = T.| url = https://zenodo.org/record/1430840| access-date = 28 June 2019| archive-date = 23 December 2019| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191223010722/https://zenodo.org/record/1430840| url-status = live}}</ref> In 1911, he theorized that atoms have their charge concentrated in a very small [[Physics:Atomic nucleus|nucleus]].<ref>{{cite book |title = Theoretical concepts in physics: an alternative view of theoretical reasoning in physics |last = Longair |first = M. S. |publisher = Cambridge University Press |year = 2003 |isbn = 978-0-521-52878-8 |pages = 377–378 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=bA9Lp2GH6OEC&pg=PA377 |access-date = 11 May 2020 |archive-date = 30 October 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231030224745/https://books.google.com/books?id=bA9Lp2GH6OEC&pg=PA377#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status = live }}</ref> This was done through his discovery and interpretation of [[Physics:Rutherford scattering|Rutherford scattering]] during the gold foil experiment performed by [[Biography:Hans Geiger|Hans Geiger]] and Ernest Marsden, resulting in his conception of the [[Physics:Rutherford model|Rutherford model]] of the [[Physics:Atom|atom]]. In 1917, he performed the first artificially-induced [[Physics:Nuclear reaction|nuclear reaction]] by conducting experiments where nitrogen nuclei were bombarded with alpha particles. As a result, he discovered the emission of a subatomic particle which he initially called the "hydrogen atom", but later (more accurately) named the [[Physics:Proton|proton]].<ref>{{Cite journal|doi = 10.1080/14786440608635919|title = Collision of α particles with light atoms. IV. An anomalous effect in nitrogen|journal = The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science|series = Series 6|volume = 37|issue = 222|pages = 581–587|year = 1919|last1 = Rutherford|first1 = E.|url = https://zenodo.org/record/1430800|access-date = 2 November 2019|archive-date = 2 November 2019|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191102172157/https://zenodo.org/record/1430800|url-status = live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |doi = 10.1098/rspa.1920.0040|title = Bakerian Lecture. Nuclear Constitution of Atoms|journal = Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences|volume = 97|issue = 686|pages = 374–400|year = 1920|last1 = Rutherford|first1 = E.|bibcode = 1920RSPSA..97..374R|doi-access = free}}</ref> He is also credited with developing the [[Physics:Atomic number|atomic numbering system]] alongside Henry Moseley. His other achievements include advancing the fields of [[Social:Radio|radio]] communications and [[Physics:Ultrasound|ultrasound]] technology.

Rutherford became Director of the [[Organization:Cavendish Laboratory|Cavendish Laboratory]] at the [[Organization:University of Cambridge|University of Cambridge]] in 1919. Under his leadership, the [[Physics:Neutron|neutron]] was discovered by [[Biography:James Chadwick|James Chadwick]] in 1932. In the same year, the first controlled experiment to split the nucleus was performed by [[Biography:John Cockcroft|John Cockcroft]] and [[Biography:Ernest Walton|Ernest Walton]], working under his direction. In honour of his scientific advancements, Rutherford was recognised as a Baron in the peerages of New Zealand and Britain. After his death in 1937, he was buried in Westminster Abbey near [[Biography:Charles Darwin|Charles Darwin]] and [[Biography:Isaac Newton|Isaac Newton]]. The chemical element [[Chemistry:Rutherfordium|rutherfordium]] (<sub>104</sub>Rf) was named after him in 1997.

== Early life and education ==
Ernest Rutherford was born on 30 August 1871 in Brightwater, a town near [[Place:Nelson, New Zealand|Nelson]], New Zealand.<ref name=McLintock/> He was the fourth of twelve children of James Rutherford, an immigrant farmer and mechanic from Perth, Scotland, and his wife Martha Thompson, a schoolteacher from Hornchurch, England.<ref name=McLintock>{{cite encyclopedia|author=A.H. McLintock|encyclopedia=An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand|title=Rutherford, Sir Ernest (Baron Rutherford of Nelson, O.M., F.R.S.)|edition=1966|date=18 September 2007|url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/1966/rutherford-sir-ernest/1|publisher=Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand|isbn=978-0-478-18451-8|access-date=2 April 2008|archive-date=3 December 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111203225115/http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/1966/rutherford-sir-ernest/1|url-status=live|url-access=<!--WP:URLACCESS-->}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_vNW1wg9npgC&pg=PA12|page=12|author=J.L. Heilbron|title=Ernest Rutherford And the Explosion of Atoms|date=12 June 2003|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0-19-512378-6|access-date=22 February 2016|archive-date=29 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230829161018/https://books.google.com/books?id=_vNW1wg9npgC&pg=PA12|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> Rutherford's birth certificate was mistakenly written as 'Earnest'. He was known by his family as Ern.<ref name=McLintock/><ref name=":0">{{DNZB|last=Campbell|first=John|title=Rutherford, Ernest 1871–1937|id=3R37|access-date=4 April 2011}}</ref> 

When Rutherford was five he moved to Foxhill and attended Foxhill School. At age 11 in 1883, the Rutherford family moved to Havelock, a town in the Marlborough Sounds. The move was made to be closer to the a flax mill the father was operating near the Ruapaka Stream.<ref name=":0" /> Ernest studied at Havelock School.<ref>{{Cite news |date=7 October 1886 |title=Local and General News. |volume=22 |page=2 |work=Marlborough Express |issue=186 |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MEX18861007.2.8? |access-date=October 1, 2023 |via=Papers Past |archive-date=8 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230808010845/https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MEX18861007.2.8 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1887, on his second attempt, he won a scholarship to study at Nelson College.<ref name=":0" /> On his first examination attempt, he received 75 out of 130 marks for geography, 76 out of 130 for history, 101 out of 140 for English, and 200 out of 200 for arithmetic, totalling 452 out of 600 marks.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Results of Nelson Scholarships Examinations for December 1885. |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TC18860102.2.30 |access-date=8 August 2023 |website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz |archive-date=8 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230808010350/https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TC18860102.2.30 |url-status=live }}</ref> With these marks, he had the highest of anyone from Nelson.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Marlborough Express. Published Every Evening. Monday, December 28, 1885. Local and General News. |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MEX18851228.2.5 |access-date=8 August 2023 |website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz |archive-date=8 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230808010547/https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MEX18851228.2.5 |url-status=live }}</ref> When he was awarded the scholarship, he had received 580 out of 600 possible marks.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Marlborough Express. Published Every Evening Wednesday, January 5, 1887. Local and General News. |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MEX18870105.2.6 |access-date=8 August 2023 |website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz |archive-date=8 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230808011211/https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MEX18870105.2.6 |url-status=live }}</ref> After being awarded the scholarship, Havelock School presented him with a five-volume set of books titled ''The Peoples of the World''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Papers Past {{!}} Newspapers {{!}} Marlborough Express {{!}} 25 January 1887 {{!}} Local and General News. |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MEX18870125.2.6 |access-date=8 August 2023 |website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz |archive-date=8 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230808011630/https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MEX18870125.2.6 |url-status=live }}</ref> He studied at Nelson College between 1887 and 1889, and was head boy in 1889. He also played in the school's rugby team.<ref name=":0" /> He was offered a cadetship in government service, but he declined as he still had 15 months of college remaining.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Papers Past {{!}} Newspapers {{!}} Marlborough Express {{!}} 4 October 1887 {{!}} Marlborough Express. Published Every Evening.... |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MEX18871004.2.7 |access-date=8 August 2023 |website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz |archive-date=8 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230808011952/https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MEX18871004.2.7 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1889, after his second attempt, he won a [[Social:Bursary|scholarship]] to study at [[Organization:University of Canterbury#History|Canterbury College]], [[Organization:University of New Zealand|University of New Zealand]], between 1890 and 1894. He participated in its debating society and the Science Society.<ref name=":0" /> At Canterbury, he was awarded a complex BA in Latin, English, and Maths in 1892, a MA in Mathematics and Physical Science in 1893, and a BSc in Chemistry and Geology in 1894.<ref name="Nobel Rutherford Biography">{{cite web |title=Ernest Rutherford Biographical |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1908/rutherford/biographical/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230603075847/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1908/rutherford/biographical/ |archive-date=3 June 2023 |url-status=live |website=The Nobel Prize |publisher=Nobel Prize Outreach AB |access-date=5 October 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Famous Canterbury graduate Ernest Rutherford turns 150 |url=https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/news/2021/famous-canterbury-graduate-ernest-rutherford-turns-150.html |website=The University of Canterbury |access-date=3 July 2023 |language=en-nz |date=27 August 2021 |archive-date=3 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230703222040/https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/news/2021/famous-canterbury-graduate-ernest-rutherford-turns-150.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Thereafter, he invented a new form of radio receiver, and in 1895 Rutherford was awarded an 1851 Research Fellowship from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851,<ref>1851 Royal Commission Archives</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Papers Past {{!}} Newspapers {{!}} Ashburton Guardian {{!}} 13 July 1895 {{!}} European and Other Foreign Items |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AG18950713.2.9 |access-date=8 August 2023 |website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz |archive-date=8 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230808013431/https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AG18950713.2.9 |url-status=live }}</ref> to travel to England for postgraduate study at the [[Organization:Cavendish Laboratory|Cavendish Laboratory]], [[Organization:University of Cambridge|University of Cambridge]].<ref name="Venn">{{acad|id=RTRT895E|name=Rutherford, Ernest}}</ref> In 1897, he was awarded a BA Research Degree and the Coutts-Trotter Studentship from Trinity College, Cambridge.<ref name="Nobel Rutherford Biography"/>

== Scientific career ==
[[File:Ernest Rutherford 1892.jpg|thumb|right|Rutherford in 1892, aged 21]]

When Rutherford began his studies at Cambridge, he was among the first 'aliens' (those without a Cambridge degree) allowed to do research at the university, and was additionally honoured to study under [[Biography:J. J. Thomson|J. J. Thomson]].<ref name="aps" />

With Thomson's encouragement, Rutherford detected radio waves at {{convert|0.5|mi|m}}, and briefly held the world record for the distance over which electromagnetic waves could be detected, although when he presented his results at the British Association meeting in 1896, he discovered he had been outdone by [[Biography:Guglielmo Marconi|Guglielmo Marconi]], whose radio waves had sent a message across nearly {{convert|10|mi|km}}.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Holmes |first1=Jonathan |title=Marconi's first radio broadcast made 125 years ago |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-somerset-61327062 |access-date=16 June 2023 |work=BBC News |date=13 May 2022 |archive-date=5 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230605224315/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-somerset-61327062 |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Work with radioactivity ===
Again under Thomson's leadership, Rutherford worked on the conductive effects of X-rays on gases, which led to the discovery of the [[Physics:Electron|electron]], the results first presented by Thomson in 1897.<ref name=Hindu/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Buchwald |first1=Jed Z. |last2=Warwick |first2=Andrew |title=Histories of the electron: the birth of microphysics |date=30 January 2004 |publisher=MIT Press |location=Cambridge, Mass. |isbn=0262524244 |pages=21–30 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1yqqhlIdCOoC&pg=PA21 |access-date=27 June 2023 |archive-date=29 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230829163251/https://books.google.com/books?id=1yqqhlIdCOoC&pg=PA21 |url-status=live }}</ref> Hearing of [[Biography:Henri Becquerel|Henri Becquerel]]'s experience with [[Chemistry:Uranium|uranium]], Rutherford started to explore its radioactivity, discovering two types that differed from X-rays in their penetrating power. Continuing his research in Canada, in 1899 he coined the terms "alpha ray" and "beta ray" to describe these two distinct types of radiation.<ref name=abg>{{Cite journal|last=Trenn|first=Thaddeus J.|date=1976|title=Rutherford on the Alpha-Beta-Gamma Classification of Radioactive Rays|journal=Isis|volume=67|issue=1|pages=61–75|jstor=231134|doi=10.1086/351545|s2cid=145281124}}</ref>

In 1898, Rutherford was accepted to the chair of Macdonald Professor of physics position at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, on Thomson's recommendation.<ref>{{cite book| first=Robin| last=McKown| title=Giant of the Atom, Ernest Rutherford| url=https://archive.org/details/giantofatomernes00mcko|url-access=registration|year=1962|publisher=Julian Messner Inc, New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/giantofatomernes00mcko/page/57 57]}}</ref> From 1900 to 1903, he was joined at McGill by the young chemist [[Biography:Frederick Soddy|Frederick Soddy]] (Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1921) for whom he set the problem of identifying the [[Chemistry:Noble gas|noble gas]] emitted by the radioactive element [[Chemistry:Thorium|thorium]], a substance which was itself radioactive and would coat other substances. Once he had eliminated all the normal chemical reactions, Soddy suggested that it must be one of the inert gases, which they named thoron. This substance was later found to be [[Physics:Isotopes of radon|<sup>220</sup>Rn]], an isotope of radon.<ref name="Kragh">{{Cite arXiv|last=Kragh|first=Helge|date=5 February 2012|title=Rutherford, Radioactivity, and the Atomic Nucleus|eprint=1202.0954|class=physics.hist-ph}}</ref><ref name="Nobel Rutherford Biography"/> They also found another substance they called Thorium X, later identified as [[Chemistry:Radium#Isotopes|<sup>224</sup>Rn]], and continued to find traces of helium. They also worked with samples of "Uranium X" ([[Chemistry:Protactinium|protactinium]]), from [[Biography:William Crookes|William Crookes]], and [[Chemistry:Radium|radium]], from [[Biography:Marie Curie|Marie Curie]]. Rutherford further investigated thoron in conjunction with [[Biography:Robert Bowie Owens|R.B. Owens]] and found that a sample of radioactive material of any size invariably took the same amount of time for half the sample to decay (in this case, 11{{frac|1|2}} minutes), a phenomenon for which he coined the term "[[Physics:Half-life|half-life]]".<ref name="Kragh"/> Rutherford and Soddy published their paper "Law of Radioactive Change" to account for all their experiments. Until then, atoms were assumed to be the indestructible basis of all matter; and although Curie had suggested that radioactivity was an atomic phenomenon, the idea of the atoms of radioactive substances breaking up was a radically new idea. Rutherford and Soddy demonstrated that radioactivity involved the spontaneous disintegration of atoms into other, as yet, unidentified matter.<ref name="Nobel Rutherford Biography"/>

In 1903, Rutherford considered a type of radiation, discovered (but not named) by French chemist Paul Villard in 1900, as an emission from [[Chemistry:Radium|radium]], and realised that this observation must represent something different from his own alpha and beta rays, due to its very much greater penetrating power. Rutherford therefore gave this third type of radiation the name of [[Physics:Gamma ray|gamma ray]].<ref name=abg/> All three of Rutherford's terms are in standard use today – other types of [[Physics:Radioactive decay|radioactive decay]] have since been discovered, but Rutherford's three types are among the most common. In 1904, Rutherford suggested that radioactivity provides a source of energy sufficient to explain the existence of the Sun for the many millions of years required for the slow biological evolution on Earth proposed by biologists such as [[Biography:Charles Darwin|Charles Darwin]]. The physicist Lord Kelvin had argued earlier for a much younger Earth,{{efn|See the article on [[Biography:William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin#Age of the Earth: geology|Kelvin]] for details of his arguments.}} based on the insufficiency of known energy sources, but Rutherford pointed out, at a lecture attended by Kelvin, that radioactivity could solve this problem.<ref name="England et al 2007">{{cite journal |author1=England, P. |author2=Molnar, P. |author3=Righter, F. | title=John Perry's neglected critique of Kelvin's age for the Earth: A missed opportunity in geodynamics |journal=GSA Today |date=January 2007 |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=4–9 |doi=10.1130/GSAT01701A.1 |bibcode=2007GSAT...17R...4E |doi-access= free}}</ref> Later that year, he was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society,<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1904&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=28 June 2021|website=search.amphilsoc.org|archive-date=28 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210628190035/https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1904&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|url-status=live}}</ref> and in 1907 he returned to Britain to take the chair of physics at the Victoria University of Manchester.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ernest Rutherford: Heritage Heroes at The University of Manchester |url=https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/history-heritage/history/heroes/ernest-rutherford/ |website=The University of Manchester |access-date=27 June 2023 |language=en |archive-date=27 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230627004723/https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/history-heritage/history/heroes/ernest-rutherford/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In Manchester, Rutherford continued his work with alpha radiation. In conjunction with [[Biography:Hans Geiger|Hans Geiger]], he developed zinc sulfide [[Chemistry:Zinc sulfide|scintillation screens]] and ionisation chambers to count alpha particles. By dividing the total charge they produced by the number counted, Rutherford decided that the charge on the alpha particle was two.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rutherford |first1=E. |last2=Geiger |first2=H. |last3=Bateman |first3=H. |title=LXXVI. The probability variations in the distribution of α particles |journal=The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science |date=October 1910 |volume=20 |issue=118 |pages=698–707 |doi=10.1080/14786441008636955 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1430880 |access-date=11 August 2023 |archive-date=29 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230829170123/https://zenodo.org/record/1430880 |url-status=live }}</ref> In late 1907, Ernest Rutherford and Thomas Royds allowed alphas to penetrate a very thin window into an evacuated tube. As they [[Physics:Atomic emission spectroscopy|sparked the tube into discharge]], the spectrum obtained from it changed, as the alphas accumulated in the tube. Eventually, the clear spectrum of helium gas appeared, proving that alphas were at least ionised helium atoms, and probably helium nuclei.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rutherford |first1=E. |last2=Royds |first2=T. |title=XXI. The nature of the α particle from radioactive substances |journal=The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science |date=February 1909 |volume=17 |issue=98 |pages=281–286 |doi=10.1080/14786440208636599 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1430648 |access-date=11 August 2023 |archive-date=7 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507040356/https://zenodo.org/record/1430648 |url-status=live }}</ref> Ernest Rutherford was awarded the [[Biography:List of Nobel laureates in Chemistry|1908 Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] "for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances".<ref>{{cite web |title=The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1908 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1908/summary/ |website=The Nobel Prize |publisher=The Nobel Foundation |access-date=2 April 2020 |archive-date=8 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180708045209/https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1908/index.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Nobel Rutherford Biography" />

=== Model of the atom ===
[[File:Gold foil experiment conclusions.svg|right|thumb|''Top:'' Expected results: [[Physics:Alpha particle|alpha particle]]s passing through the [[Physics:Plum pudding model|plum pudding model]] of the atom undisturbed.<br />
''Bottom:'' Observed results: a small portion of the particles were deflected, indicating [[Physics:Atomic nucleus|a small, concentrated charge]]. Diagram is not to scale; in reality the nucleus is vastly smaller than the electron shell.]]

Rutherford continued to make ground-breaking discoveries long after receiving the Nobel prize in 1908. Along with [[Biography:Hans Geiger|Hans Geiger]] and Ernest Marsden in 1909, he carried out the [[Physics:Geiger–Marsden experiment|Geiger–Marsden experiment]], which demonstrated the nuclear nature of atoms by measuring the deflection of alpha particles passing through a thin gold foil.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Pestka |first1=Jessica |title=About Rutherford's Gold Foil Experiment |url=https://sciencing.com/rutherfords-gold-foil-experiment-4569065.html |website=Sciencing |access-date=27 June 2023 |language=en |date=25 April 2017 |archive-date=27 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230627004502/https://sciencing.com/rutherfords-gold-foil-experiment-4569065.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Rutherford was inspired to ask Geiger and Marsden in this experiment to look for alpha particles with very high deflection angles, which was not expected according to any theory of matter at that time.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dragovich |first1=Branko |title=Ernest Rutherford and the Discovery of the Atomic Nucleus |publisher=Institute of Physics |location=Belgrade |url=http://bsw2011.seenet-mtp.info/pub/bss2011-DragovichB-abs.pdf |access-date=27 June 2023 |archive-date=27 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230627004502/http://bsw2011.seenet-mtp.info/pub/bss2011-DragovichB-abs.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Davidson |first1=Michael W. |title=Pioneers in Optics: Johann Wilhelm Ritter and Ernest Rutherford |journal=Microscopy Today |date=March 2014 |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=48–51 |doi=10.1017/S1551929514000029 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/E8B7456A024C6ED07D4E891F540C8EE2/S1551929514000029a.pdf/pioneers-in-optics-johann-wilhelm-ritter-and-ernest-rutherford.pdf |access-date=27 June 2023 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |s2cid=135584871 |archive-date=3 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230103220843/https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/E8B7456A024C6ED07D4E891F540C8EE2/S1551929514000029a.pdf/pioneers-in-optics-johann-wilhelm-ritter-and-ernest-rutherford.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Such deflection angles, although rare, were found. It was Rutherford's interpretation of this data that led him to formulate the [[Physics:Rutherford model|Rutherford model]] of the atom in 1911{{snd}}that a very small [[Physics:Charge|charged]] [[Physics:Atomic nucleus|nucleus]], containing much of the atom's mass, was [[Physics:Orbit|orbit]]ed by low-mass electrons.<ref name=charge>{{Cite journal |last1=Rutherford |first1=E. |year=1911 |title=The scattering of α and β particles by matter and the structure of the atom |url=http://www.math.ubc.ca/~cass/rutherford/rutherford688.html |journal=The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science |series=Series 6 |volume=21 |issue=125 |pages=669–688 |doi=10.1080/14786440508637080 |access-date=6 October 2012 |archive-date=7 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120607013629/http://www.math.ubc.ca/~cass/rutherford/rutherford688.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1912, Rutherford was joined by [[Biography:Niels Bohr|Niels Bohr]] (who postulated that electrons moved in specific orbits). Bohr adapted Rutherford's nuclear structure to be consistent with [[Biography:Max Planck|Max Planck]]'s [[Physics:Quantum mechanics|quantum theory]], and the resulting Rutherford–Bohr model is considered valid to this day.<ref name="Nobel Rutherford Biography"/>

=== Piezoelectricity ===
During World War I, Rutherford worked on a top-secret project to solve the practical problems of submarine detection. Both Rutherford and [[Biography:Paul Langevin|Paul Langevin]] suggested the use of [[Physics:Piezoelectricity|piezoelectricity]], and Rutherford successfully developed a device which measured its output. The use of piezoelectricity then became essential to the development of [[Physics:Ultrasound|ultrasound]] as it is known today. The claim that Rutherford developed sonar, however, is a misconception, as subaquatic detection technologies utilise Langevin's [[Engineering:Piezoelectric sensor|transducer]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Katzir |first1=Shaul |title=Who knew piezoelectricity? Rutherford and Langevin on submarine detection and the invention of sonar |journal=Notes and Records of the Royal Society |date=20 June 2012 |volume=66 |issue=2 |pages=141–157 |doi=10.1098/rsnr.2011.0049 |s2cid=1240938 |url=https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/epdf/10.1098/rsnr.2011.0049 |access-date=2 July 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Duck |first1=Francis |title=Paul Langevin, U-boats, and ultrasonics |journal=Physics Today |date=1 November 2022 |volume=75 |issue=11 |pages=42–48 |doi=10.1063/PT.3.5122 |bibcode=2022PhT....75k..42D |s2cid=253280842 |url=https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/article/75/11/42/2848556/Paul-Langevin-U-boats-and-ultrasonicsCreated-in |access-date=2 July 2023 |doi-access=free |archive-date=2 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702184756/https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/article/75/11/42/2848556/Paul-Langevin-U-boats-and-ultrasonicsCreated-in |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Discovery of the proton ===
Together with H.G. Moseley, Rutherford developed the [[Physics:Atomic number|atomic numbering system]] in 1913. Rutherford and Moseley's experiments used cathode rays to bombard various elements with streams of electrons and observed that each element responded in a consistent and distinct manner. Their research was the first to assert that each element could be defined by the properties of its inner structures – an observation that later led to the discovery of the [[Physics:Atomic nucleus|atomic nucleus]].<ref name="Nobel Rutherford Biography"/> This research led Rutherford to theorize that the hydrogen atom (at the time the least massive entity known to bear a positive charge) was a sort of "positive electron" – a component of every atomic element.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rutherford |first1=Ernest |title=The structure of the atom |journal=Philosophical Magazine |date=1914 |volume=27 |pages=488–498 |url=http://www.ub.edu/hcub/hfq/sites/default/files/ruth1914%285%29.pdf |access-date=13 June 2023 |archive-date=13 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230613022543/http://www.ub.edu/hcub/hfq/sites/default/files/ruth1914(5).pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Whittaker |first1=Edmund |title=A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity |date=1989 |volume=2 |publisher=Courier Dover Publications |isbn=0-486-26126-3 |page=87}}</ref>

It was not until 1919 that Rutherford expanded upon his theory of the "positive electron" with a series of experiments beginning shortly before the end of his time at Manchester. He found that nitrogen, and other light elements, ejected a proton, which he called a "hydrogen atom", when hit with α (alpha) particles.<ref name="Nobel Rutherford Biography"/> In particular, he showed that particles ejected by alpha particles colliding with hydrogen have unit charge and 1/4 the momentum of alpha particles.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rutherford |first1=Ernest |title=LII. Collision of α particles with light atoms II. Velocity of the hydrogen atom |journal=The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science |date=8 April 2009 |volume=37 |issue=222 |pages=562–571 |doi=10.1080/14786440608635917 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14786440608635917?journalCode=tphm17 |access-date=13 June 2023 |series=6 |archive-date=13 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230613022542/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14786440608635917?journalCode=tphm17 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Rutherford returned to the Cavendish Laboratory in 1919, succeeding J. J. Thomson as the Cavendish professor and the laboratory's director, posts that he held until his death in 1937.<ref name=cam>{{cite web |url=http://www.phy.cam.ac.uk/history/cavprof.php |title=The Cavendish Professorship of Physics |publisher=University of Cambridge |accessdate=30 November 2013 |archive-date=3 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130703172354/http://www.phy.cam.ac.uk/history/cavprof.php |url-status=dead }}</ref> During his tenure, Nobel prizes were awarded to [[Biography:James Chadwick|James Chadwick]] for discovering the neutron (in 1932), [[Biography:John Cockcroft|John Cockcroft]] and [[Biography:Ernest Walton|Ernest Walton]] for an experiment that was to be known as ''splitting the atom'' using a [[Physics:Particle accelerator|particle accelerator]], and [[Biography:Edward Victor Appleton|Edward Appleton]] for demonstrating the existence of the [[Astronomy:Ionosphere|ionosphere]].

=== Development of proton and neutron theory ===
In 1919–1920, Rutherford continued his research on the "hydrogen atom" to confirm that alpha particles break down nitrogen nuclei and to affirm the nature of the products. This result showed Rutherford that hydrogen nuclei were a part of nitrogen nuclei (and by inference, probably other nuclei as well). Such a construction had been suspected for many years, on the basis of atomic weights that were integral multiples of that of hydrogen; see [[Chemistry:Prout's hypothesis|Prout's hypothesis]]. Hydrogen was known to be the lightest element, and its nuclei presumably the lightest nuclei. Now, because of all these considerations, Rutherford decided that a hydrogen nucleus was possibly a fundamental building block of all nuclei, and also possibly a new fundamental particle as well, since nothing was known to be lighter than that nucleus. Thus, confirming and extending the work of [[Biography:Wilhelm Wien|Wilhelm Wien]], who in 1898 discovered the proton in streams of ionized gas,<ref>{{Cite journal|doi = 10.1002/andp.18943180404|title = Über positive Elektronen und die Existenz hoher Atomgewichte|journal = Annalen der Physik|volume = 318|issue = 4|pages = 669–677|year = 1904|last1 = Wien|first1 = W.|bibcode = 1904AnP...318..669W|url = https://zenodo.org/record/2190505|access-date = 5 September 2020|archive-date = 13 July 2020|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200713133516/https://zenodo.org/record/2190505|url-status = live}}</ref> in 1920 Rutherford postulated the hydrogen nucleus to be a new particle, which he dubbed the ''[[Physics:Proton|proton]]''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Atop the Physics Wave: Rutherford back in Cambridge, 1919–1937 |url=https://history.aip.org/exhibits/rutherford/sections/atop-physics-wave.html |website=Rutherford's Nuclear World: The Story of the Discovery of the Nucleus |publisher=American Institute of Physics |access-date=26 June 2023 |archive-date=29 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230829155208/https://history.aip.org/exhibits/rutherford/sections/atop-physics-wave.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1921, while working with Niels Bohr, Rutherford theorized about the existence of [[Physics:Neutron|neutron]]s, (which he had christened in his 1920 Bakerian Lecture), which could somehow compensate for the repelling effect of the positive charges of [[Physics:Proton|proton]]s by causing an attractive [[Physics:Nuclear force|nuclear force]] and thus keep the nuclei from flying apart, due to the repulsion between protons. The only alternative to neutrons was the existence of "nuclear electrons", which would counteract some of the proton charges in the nucleus, since by then it was known that nuclei had about twice the mass that could be accounted for if they were simply assembled from hydrogen nuclei (protons). But how these nuclear electrons could be trapped in the nucleus, was a mystery. Rutherford is widely quoted as saying, regarding the results of these experiments: "It was quite the most incredible event that has ever happened to me in my life. It was almost as incredible as if you fired a 15-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back and hit you."<ref>E. N. da C. Andrade, ''Rutherford and the Nature of the Atom'' (1964), cited in {{cite book |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191826719.001.0001/q-oro-ed4-00009051 |title=Oxford Essential Quotations |edition=4th |year=2016 |chapter=Ernest Rutherford 1871–1937, New Zealand physicist |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780191826719 |editor-first=Susan |editor-last=Ratcliffe |access-date=25 March 2021 |archive-date=30 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210730130401/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191826719.001.0001/q-oro-ed4-00009051 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1932, Rutherford's theory of [[Physics:Neutron|neutron]]s was proved by his associate [[Biography:James Chadwick|James Chadwick]], who recognised neutrons immediately when they were produced by other scientists and later himself, in bombarding beryllium with alpha particles. In 1935, Chadwick was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery.<ref>{{cite web |title=James Chadwick – Facts |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1935/chadwick/facts/ |website=The Nobel Prize |publisher=Nobel Prize Outreach AB |access-date=16 June 2023 |archive-date=4 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191004015954/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1935/chadwick/facts/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Re-evaluation of nuclear transmutation credit ===
From as early as 1948 to at least 2017, there was a long-standing myth that Rutherford was the first scientist to observe and report an artificial [[Physics:Nuclear transmutation|transmutation]] of a stable element into another element: nitrogen into oxygen.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Nobel Prize for Physics : Prof. P. M. S. Blackett, F.R.S |journal=Nature |volume=162 |issue=4126 |year=1948 |pages=841 |doi=10.1038/162841b0|bibcode=1948Natur.162R.841. |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Exploring the atom |url=https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Resources/adventures_atom.htm |work=The Manhattan Project – Adventures Inside the Atom |publisher=U.S. Department of Energy – Office of History and Heritage Resources |access-date=19 June 2019 |archive-date=18 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201018025709/https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Resources/adventures_atom.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> It was thought by many people to be one of Rutherford's greatest accomplishments.<ref>{{cite web |last=Dacey |first=James |title=What was Rutherford's greatest discovery? |url=https://physicsworld.com/a/what-was-rutherfords-greatest/ |publisher=Physics World |date=1 September 2011 |access-date=18 June 2019 |archive-date=8 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190608184009/https://physicsworld.com/a/what-was-rutherfords-greatest/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Allibone |first=Thomas Edward |title=Rutherford Memorial Lecture, 1963 The industrial development of nuclear power |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A. Mathematical and Physical Sciences |volume=282 |issue=1391 |year=1964 |pages=447–463 |doi=10.1098/rspa.1964.0245|bibcode=1964RSPSA.282..447A |s2cid=97303563 }}</ref> The New Zealand government even issued a commemorative stamp in the belief that the nitrogen-to-oxygen discovery belonged to Rutherford.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Campbell |first=John |title=Inside Story: The genius of Rutherford revisited |url=https://cerncourier.com/inside-story-the-genius-of-rutherford-revisited/ |journal=CERN Courier |year=2009 |volume=49 |issue=2 |pages=46–48 |access-date=20 June 2019 |archive-date=8 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190608225409/https://cerncourier.com/inside-story-the-genius-of-rutherford-revisited/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Beginning in 2017, many scientific institutions corrected their versions of this history to indicate that the credit for the discovery belongs to [[Biography:Patrick Blackett|Patrick Blackett]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Exploring the atom |url=https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Events/1890s-1939/exploring.htm |work=The Manhattan Project – an interactive history |publisher=U.S. Department of Energy – Office of History and Heritage Resources |access-date=18 June 2019 |archive-date=7 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190607231547/https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Events/1890s-1939/exploring.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> who undertook this research at Rutherford's suggestion and with his help and advice. Rutherford did detect the ejected proton in 1919 and interpreted it as evidence for disintegration of the nitrogen nucleus (to lighter nuclei). In 1925, Blackett showed that the actual product is oxygen and identified the true reaction as <sup>14</sup>N + α → <sup>17</sup>O + p. Rutherford therefore recognised "that the nucleus may increase rather than diminish in mass as the result of collisions in which the proton is expelled".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rutherford |first1=Sir Ernest |title=Studies of Atomic Nuclei |url=https://archive.org/details/RoyalInstitutionLibraryOfScience-PhysicalScienceVol9 |date=27 March 1925 |journal=Science |volume=62 |issue=1601 |pages=73–76 |publisher=The Royal Institution Library of Sciences |doi=10.1126/science.62.1601.209 |pmid=17748045 |bibcode=1925Sci....62..209R |access-date=2 October 2023}}</ref>

=== Later years and honours ===
Rutherford received significant recognition in his home country of New Zealand. In 1901, he earned a DSc from the University of New Zealand.<ref name="Venn" /> In 1916, he was awarded the Hector Memorial Medal.<ref>{{cite web |title=Recipients |url=https://www.royalsociety.org.nz/what-we-do/medals-and-awards/hector-medal/recipients-3/ |publisher=Royal Society Te Apārangi |access-date=16 February 2021 |archive-date=30 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170430164858/https://www.royalsociety.org.nz/what-we-do/medals-and-awards/hector-medal/recipients-3/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1925, Rutherford called for the New Zealand Government to support education and research, which led to the formation of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) in the following year.<ref>{{cite web |first=Emma |last=Brewerton |date=15 December 2014 |title=Ernest Rutherford |publisher=Ministry for Culture and Heritage |url=http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/people/ernest-rutherford |access-date=29 December 2010 |archive-date=1 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121201203746/http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/people/ernest-rutherford |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1933, Rutherford was one of the two inaugural recipients of the T. K. Sidey Medal, which was established by the Royal Society of New Zealand as an award for outstanding scientific research.<ref>{{cite web |title=Background of the Medal |url=http://www.royalsociety.org.nz/programmes/awards/sidey-medal/background/ |publisher=Royal Society of New Zealand |access-date=7 August 2015 |archive-date=19 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160919031437/http://www.royalsociety.org.nz/programmes/awards/sidey-medal/background/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Recipients |url=http://www.royalsociety.org.nz/programmes/awards/sidey-medal/recipients/ |publisher=Royal Society of New Zealand |access-date=7 August 2015 |archive-date=9 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170409021241/http://royalsociety.org.nz/programmes/awards/sidey-medal/recipients/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Additionally, Rutherford received a number of awards from the British Crown. He was knighted in 1914.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=12647 |date=27 February 1914 |page=269 |city=Edinburgh}}</ref> He was appointed to the Order of Merit in the 1925 New Year Honours.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=14089 |date=2 January 1925 |page=4 |city=Edinburgh}}</ref> Between 1925 and 1930, he served as President of the Royal Society, and later as president of the Academic Assistance Council which helped almost 1,000 university refugees from Germany.<ref name="eb"/> In 1931 was raised to the peerage as '''Baron Rutherford of Nelson''',<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=33683 |date=23 January 1931 |page=533}}</ref> decorating his coat of arms with a [[Biology:Kiwi (bird)|kiwi]] and a Māori warrior.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ernest Rutherford – Biography |url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/people/ernest-rutherford |website=New Zealand History |access-date=23 June 2023 |archive-date=23 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230623110402/https://nzhistory.govt.nz/people/ernest-rutherford |url-status=live }}</ref> The title became extinct upon his unexpected death in 1937.

== Personal life and death ==
The young Rutherford made his grandmother a wooden potato masher, which was believed to have been made during the school holidays. It has been held in the collection of the Royal Society since 1888.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ernest Rutherford's potato masher |url=https://prints.royalsociety.org/products/ernest-rutherfords-potato-masher-rs-8469 |access-date=2023-08-10 |website=Royal Society Print Shop |archive-date=10 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230810231752/https://prints.royalsociety.org/products/ernest-rutherfords-potato-masher-rs-8469 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Royal Society Picture Library {{!}} Potato masher,Potato masher |url=https://pictures.royalsociety.org/image-rs-8469 |access-date=2023-08-10 |website=pictures.royalsociety.org |archive-date=10 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230810231608/https://pictures.royalsociety.org/image-rs-8469 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1900, Rutherford married Mary Georgina Newton (1876–1954),<ref>{{Cite web| last=Intergen| title=General| url=https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/| access-date=8 February 2023| website=www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz| archive-date=12 November 2020| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112022628/https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/| url-status=live}}</ref> to whom he had become engaged before leaving New Zealand, at St Paul's Anglican Church, Papanui in [[Place:Christchurch|Christchurch]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/christchurch-life/560019/Family-history-in-from-the-cold |title=Family history in from the cold |date=18 March 2009 |access-date=3 July 2017 |archive-date=14 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180914094507/http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/christchurch-life/560019/Family-history-in-from-the-cold |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web| first=Fiona| last=Summerfield| url=http://anglicantaonga.org.nz/news/tikanga_pakeha/new_lease_of_life_for_historic_chch_church| title=Historic St Paul's Church in the Christchurch suburb of Papanui is being fully restored| website=Anglican Taonga| date=9 November 2012| access-date=5 February 2019| archive-date=14 September 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180914165438/http://anglicantaonga.org.nz/news/tikanga_pakeha/new_lease_of_life_for_historic_chch_church| url-status=live}}</ref> They had one daughter, Eileen Mary (1901–1930), who married the physicist Ralph Fowler. Rutherford's hobbies included golf and motoring.<ref name="Nobel Rutherford Biography" />

For some time before his death, Rutherford had a small [[Medicine:Hernia|hernia]], which he neglected to have fixed, and it became strangulated, rendering him violently ill. Despite an emergency operation in London, he died four days afterwards, at Cambridge on 19 October 1937 at age 66, of what physicians termed "intestinal paralysis".<ref name=compeerage>{{cite book|title=The Complete Peerage, Volume XIII – Peerage Creations, 1901–1938|year=1949|publisher=St Catherine's Press|page=495}}</ref> After cremation at Golders Green Crematorium,<ref name=compeerage /> he was given the high honour of burial in Westminster Abbey, near [[Biography:Isaac Newton|Isaac Newton]] and other illustrious British scientists such as [[Biography:Charles Darwin|Charles Darwin]].<ref name="Nobel Rutherford Biography"/><ref>{{Cite book|last=Heilbron|first=J. L.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_vNW1wg9npgC&pg=PA123|title=Ernest Rutherford: And the Explosion of Atoms|date=2003-06-12|publisher=Oxford University Press|pages=123–124|isbn=978-0-19-512378-4|language=en|access-date=22 February 2016|archive-date=13 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230113203740/https://books.google.com/books?id=_vNW1wg9npgC&pg=PA123|url-status=live}}</ref>

== Legacy ==
[[File:Statue of Ernest Rutherford.JPG|right|thumb|A statue of a young Ernest Rutherford at his memorial in Brightwater, New Zealand.]]

Rutherford is considered to be among the greatest scientists in history. At the opening session of the 1938 Indian Science Congress, which Rutherford had been expected to preside over before his death, astrophysicist [[Biography:James Jeans|James Jeans]] spoke in his place and deemed him "one of the greatest scientists of all time", saying:

{{blockquote|In his flair for the right line of approach to a problem, as well as in the simple directness of his methods of attack, [Rutherford] often reminds us of Faraday, but he had two great advantages which Faraday did not possess, first, exuberant bodily health and energy, and second, the opportunity and capacity to direct a band of enthusiastic co-workers. Great though Faraday's output of work was, it seems to me that to match Rutherford's work in quantity as well as in quality, we must go back to Newton. In some respects he was more fortunate than Newton. Rutherford was ever the happy warrior – happy in his work, happy in its outcome, and happy in its human contacts.<ref>{{cite news |title=Viceroy Opens The Congress – Sir James Jeans's Address|work=The Times |location=Calcutta |date=3 January 1938 }}</ref>}}

=== Nuclear physics ===
Rutherford is known as "the father of nuclear physics" because his research, and work done under him as laboratory director, established the nuclear structure of the atom and the essential nature of radioactive decay as a nuclear process.<ref name=Father>{{cite web |title=Ernest Rutherford |url=https://ehs.msu.edu/lab-clinic/rad/hist-figures/rutherford.html |website=Environmental Health and Safety Office of Research Regulatory Support |publisher=Michigan State University |access-date=23 June 2023 |archive-date=22 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230622163634/https://ehs.msu.edu/lab-clinic/rad/hist-figures/rutherford.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Ernest Rutherford: father of nuclear science |url=https://media.newzealand.com/en/story-ideas/ernest-rutherford-father-of-nuclear-science/ |website=New Zealand Media Resources |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210612184534/https://media.newzealand.com/en/story-ideas/ernest-rutherford-father-of-nuclear-science/ |archive-date=12 June 2021 |language=en |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=Hindu>{{cite web |title=Know the scientist: Ernest Rutherford |url=https://www.thehindu.com/children/know-the-scientist-ernest-rutherford/article34837002.ece |website=The Hindu |access-date=23 June 2023 |language=en-IN |date=17 June 2021 |archive-date=23 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230623183847/https://www.thehindu.com/children/know-the-scientist-ernest-rutherford/article34837002.ece |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Biography:Patrick Blackett|Patrick Blackett]], a research fellow working under Rutherford, using natural alpha particles, demonstrated ''induced'' [[Physics:Nuclear transmutation|nuclear transmutation]]. Later, Rutherford's team, using protons from an accelerator, demonstrated ''artificially-induced'' nuclear reactions and transmutation.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Giunta |first1=Carmen |title=Rutherford and Blackett artificial transmutation |url=https://web.lemoyne.edu/giunta/classicalcs/ruthblack.html |website=web.lemoyne.edu |access-date=27 June 2023 |date=2019 |archive-date=27 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230627010731/https://web.lemoyne.edu/giunta/classicalcs/ruthblack.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Rutherford died too early to see Leó Szilárd's idea of controlled [[Physics:Nuclear chain reaction|nuclear chain reaction]]s come into being. However, a speech of Rutherford's about his artificially-induced transmutation in lithium, printed in the 12 September 1933 issue of ''The Times'', was reported by Szilárd to have been his inspiration for thinking of the possibility of a controlled energy-producing [[Physics:Nuclear chain reaction|nuclear chain reaction]].<ref>{{cite web |title=September 12, 1933 – Leó Szilárd conceives the idea of the nuclear chain reaction |url=https://rinconeducativo.org/en/anniversaries/september-12-1933-leo-szilard-conceives-the-idea-of-the-nuclear-chain-reaction/#:~:text=On%20September%2012%2C%201933%2C%20in%20London%2C%20Szil%C3%A1rd%20read,transformation%20of%20atoms%20was%20talking%20about%20%22silly%20alcohol%22. |website=Rincón educativo |access-date=27 June 2023 |language=Spanish, English |archive-date=27 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230627010731/https://rinconeducativo.org/en/anniversaries/september-12-1933-leo-szilard-conceives-the-idea-of-the-nuclear-chain-reaction/#:~:text=On%20September%2012%2C%201933%2C%20in%20London%2C%20Szil%C3%A1rd%20read,transformation%20of%20atoms%20was%20talking%20about%20%22silly%20alcohol%22. |url-status=live }}</ref>

Rutherford's speech touched on the 1932 work of his students [[Biography:John Cockcroft|John Cockcroft]] and [[Biography:Ernest Walton|Ernest Walton]] in "splitting" lithium into alpha particles by bombardment with protons from a particle accelerator they had constructed. Rutherford realised that the energy released from the split lithium atoms was enormous, but he also realised that the energy needed for the accelerator, and its essential inefficiency in splitting atoms in this fashion, made the project an impossibility as a practical source of energy (accelerator-induced fission of light elements remains too inefficient to be used in this way, even today). Rutherford's speech in part, read:

{{blockquote|We might in these processes obtain very much more energy than the proton supplied, but on the average we could not expect to obtain energy in this way. It was a very poor and inefficient way of producing energy, and anyone who looked for a source of power in the transformation of the atoms was talking moonshine. But the subject was scientifically interesting because it gave insight into the atoms.<ref>{{Cite news|work=The Times |title=The British association – breaking down the atom |date=12 September 1933}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Rhodes |first=Richard |title=The Making of the Atomic Bomb |location=New York |publisher=Simon and Schuster |year=1986 |page=27 |title-link=The Making of the Atomic Bomb |isbn=0-671-44133-7}}</ref>}}

The element [[Chemistry:Rutherfordium|rutherfordium]], Rf, Z=104, was named in honour of Rutherford in 1997.<ref>{{cite news|author=Freemantle, Michael|title=ACS Article on Rutherfordium|url=http://pubs.acs.org/cen/80th/print/rutherfordium.html|work=Chemical & Engineering News|publisher=American Chemical Society|year=2003|access-date=2 April 2008|archive-date=28 March 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080328131206/http://pubs.acs.org/cen/80th/print/rutherfordium.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

== Publications ==
* [https://archive.org/details/radioactivity00ruthgoog ''Radio-activity''] (1904),<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WTPmAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA347|page=347|volume=23|title=Review of ''Radio-activity'' by Ernest Rutherford|journal=The Oxford Magazine|date=January 25, 1905|publisher=The Proprietors|access-date=22 March 2023|archive-date=10 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230210134711/https://books.google.com/books?id=WTPmAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA347|url-status=live}}</ref> 2nd ed. (1905), {{ISBN|978-1-60355-058-1}}
* [https://archive.org/details/radioactivetran02ruthgoog ''Radioactive Transformations'' (1906)], {{ISBN|978-1-60355-054-3}}
* {{Cite book|title=Radioaktive Substanzen und ihre Strahlungen|volume=|publisher=University press|location=Cambridge|year=1933|language=en|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=11020002}}
* {{Cite book|title=Radioaktive Substanzen und ihre Strahlungen|volume=|publisher=Akademische Verlaggesellschaft|location=Leipzig|year=1913|language=de|url=https://gutenberg.beic.it/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=6739518}}
* [https://archive.org/details/radioactivesubst00ruthuoft ''Radioactive Substances and their Radiations'' (1913)]<ref>{{cite journal|author=Carmichael, R. D.|title=Book Review: Radioactive Substances and their Radiations|journal=Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society|year=1916|volume=22|issue=4|page=200|url=https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1916-22-04/S0002-9904-1916-02762-5/S0002-9904-1916-02762-5.pdf|doi=10.1090/s0002-9904-1916-02762-5|doi-access=free|access-date=28 April 2021|archive-date=24 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224194040/https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1916-22-04/S0002-9904-1916-02762-5/S0002-9904-1916-02762-5.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>
* ''The Electrical Structure of Matter'' (1926)
* ''The Artificial Transmutation of the Elements'' (1933)
* ''The Newer Alchemy'' (1937)

=== Articles ===
* "Disintegration of the Radioactive Elements" ''Harper's Monthly Magazine,'' January 1904, pages 279 to 284.

== See also ==
* [[Physics:Bateman equation|Bateman equation]]
* Hydrophone
* [[Engineering:Magnetic detector|Magnetic detector]]
* [[Physics:Neutron generator|Neutron generator]]
* Royal Society of New Zealand
* [[Physics:Rutherford (unit)|Rutherford (unit)]]
* [[Chemistry:Rutherfordine|Rutherfordine]]
* ''The Rutherford Journal''
* List of presidents of the Royal Society

== Footnotes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|35em}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite ODNB|id=35891|title=Rutherford, Ernest|orig-year=2004|year=2008|last=Badash|first=Lawrence}}
* {{Cite journal | last1 = Cragg | first1 = R. H. | title = Lord Ernest Rutherford of Nelson (1871–1937) | doi = 10.1039/RR9710400129 | journal = Royal Institute of Chemistry, Reviews | volume = 4 | issue = 2 | page = 129| year = 1971 }}
* Campbell, John. (1999) [http://www.rutherford.org.nz/bkcamrss.htm ''Rutherford: Scientist Supreme''], AAS Publications, Christchurch, {{ISBN|0-4730-5700-X}}
* {{Cite journal | last1 = Marsden | first1 = E. | year = 1954 | title = The Rutherford Memorial Lecture, 1954. Rutherford-His Life and Work, 1871–1937  | journal = Proceedings of the Royal Society A | volume = 226 | issue = 1166 | pages = 283–305| bibcode= 1954RSPSA.226..283M | doi = 10.1098/rspa.1954.0254 | s2cid = 73381519 }}
* Reeves, Richard (2008). ''A Force of Nature: The Frontier Genius of Ernest Rutherford''. New York: W. W. Norton. {{ISBN|0-393-33369-8}}
* Rhodes, Richard (1986). ''The Making of the Atomic Bomb''. New York: Simon & Schuster. {{ISBN|0-671-44133-7}}
* Wilson, David (1983). ''Rutherford. Simple Genius'', Hodder & Stoughton, {{ISBN|0-340-23805-4}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.aip.org/history/exhibits/rutherford/ Biography and web exhibit] from the American Institute of Physics
* {{Nobelprize}} including the Nobel Lecture, 11 December 1908 ''The Chemical Nature of the Alpha Particles from Radioactive Substances''
* [http://www.physics.mcgill.ca/museum/rutherford_museum.htm The Rutherford Museum]
* [http://www.rutherford.org.nz/ Rutherford Scientist Supreme]
* {{PM20|FID=pe/024860}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-aca}}
{{s-bef|before= Arthur Schuster }}
{{s-ttl|title=Langworthy Professor<br />at the [[Organization:University of Manchester|University of Manchester]]| years=1907–1919}}
{{s-aft|after=  [[Biography:Lawrence Bragg|Lawrence Bragg]] }}
{{s-end}}

{{Royal Society presidents 1900s}}
{{People whose names are used in chemical element names}}
{{Copley Medallists 1901–1950}}
{{Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureates 1901–1925}}
{{1908 Nobel Prize winners}}
{{subject bar|United Kingdom|Biography|Science|auto=1}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rutherford, Ernest}}
[[Category:Experimental physicists]]
[[Category:Radio pioneers]]
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Chemistry]]
[[Category:Discoverers of chemical elements]]

{{Sourceattribution|Ernest Rutherford}}