Person

Rutherford, Ernest (1871 - 1937)

Kt FRS

Born
30 August 1871
Nelson, New Zealand
Died
19 October 1937
Cambridge, United Kingdom
Occupation
Nobel laureate and Physicist

Summary

Sir Ernest Rutherford was appointed Director of the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge in 1919 where he specialised in nuclear physics, having previously been Professor of Physics, McGill University 1898-1907 and Manchester University 1907-1919. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1908, for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances.

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Details

Born 30 August 1871. Died 19 October 1937. Knight Bachelor (Kt) 1914, OM 1925, Peer (Baron Rutherford of Nelson) 1931.Educated Canterbury College, Christchurch (BA 1892, MA 1893, BSc 1894) and Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge. Professor of physics, McGill University 1898-1907, Professor of physics, University of Manchester 1907-19, Director, Cavendish Laboratory 1919-37, professor of natural philosophy, Royal Institution, London 1921-37. Bakerian lecture, Royal Society 1904, Silliman lectures, Yale University 1905, Rumford Medal, Royal Society 1904, Nobel Prize for chemistry 1908, Bakerian Lecture, Royal Society 1920, Copley Medal, Royal Society 1922. President, Section A, British Association for the Advancement of Science 1909, President, British Association for the Advancement of Science 1925, President, Royal Society 1925-30.

Chronology

1908
Award - Nobel Prize in Chemistry - for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances
1914
Award - Doctor of Science (DSc), honoris causa, University of Melbourne

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

  • Ernest Rutherford - Records, 1908 - 1933, MS 077; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details
  • John Percival Vissing Madsen - Records, 1906 - 1969, MS 072; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details
  • Leonard George Holden Huxley - Records, 1933 - 1948, MS 102; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

Books

  • Campbell, John, Rutherford: Scientist Supreme (Christchurch, NZ: AAS Publications, 1999), 531 pp. Details
  • Focken, C. M., Lord Rutherford of Nelson (Auckland: Whitcombe & Tombs, 1937), 19 pp. Details
  • Ramsay, Andrew, The basis of everything: Rutherford and Oliphant and the making of the atomic bomb (Sydney: Harper Collins, 2019), 374 pp. Details
  • Reeves, Richard, A Force of Nature: the Frontier Genius of Ernst Rutherford (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2008), 207 pp. Details

CD Roms

  • Ashurst, Gillian (director and editor), Campbell, John, Rutherford [videorecording] : the life and work of Ernest Rutherford ([Auckland, N.Z.]: Spacegirl Productions, 2011). Details

Journal Articles

  • Barrette, Jean, 'Nucleus-nucleus scattering and the Rutherford experiment', Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 51 (3/4) (2021), 434-43. https://doi.org/10.1080/03036758.2021.1962368. Details
  • Campbell, J., 'Ernest Rutherford and his path to the nuclear atom', Australian physics, 48 (3) (2001), 72-7. Details
  • Campbell, John, 'Rutherford's early life and work in New Zealand', Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 51 (3/4) (2021), 415-33. https://doi.org/10.1080/03036758.2021.1915805. Details
  • Campbell, John, 'Aftermath - a personal view [Ernest Rutherford]', Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 51 (3/4) (2021), 592-602. https://doi.org/10.1080/03036758.2021.1975779. Details
  • Davies, Susan, 'Rutherford and Physics in Australia', Australian Physicist, 20 (October) (1983), 219-223. Details
  • Dean, Katrina, 'Inscribing Settler Science: Ernest Rutherford, Thomas Laby and the Making of Careers in Physics', History of Science, 41 (2003), 217-240. Details
  • Longair, Malcolm, 'Rutherford and the Cavendish Laboratory', Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 51 (3/4) (2021), 444-66. https://doi.org/10.1080/03036758.2021.1885452. Details
  • Madsen, Roger W. and Robertson, Peter, 'John Madsen and Rutherford's model of the nuclear atom', Australian physics, 60 (3) (2923), 9-13. Details
  • Rutherford, E., 'The scattering of α and β particles by matter and the structure of the atom', Philosophical magazine, 21 (1911), 669-88. Details
  • Rutherford, E., 'The structure of the atom', Philosophical magazine, 27 (1914), 488-98. Details
  • Suvorova, Olga, 'Rutherford and Russian physics: the critical influence of the human factor', Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 51 (3/4) (2021), 467-88. https://doi.org/10.1080/03036758.2021.1914690. Details

Resources

Resource Sections

See also

Gavan McCarthy

Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 22 October 2025

EOAS ID: biogs/P000766b.htm

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