A New Zealand Physicist Known as 'The Father of Nuclear Physics'

Welcome to another post on my blog. In today's post, I am sharing a scientist who is 'The Father of Nuclear Physics' and that is Ernest Rutherford.

Ernest Rutherford
ALEXANDER TURNBULL LIBRARY

Ernest Rutherford was born on 30 August 1871, Spring Grove (now known as Brightwater), rural Nelson, New Zealand and was the fourth child of 12 born to James Rutherford, a mechanic, and his wife, Martha Thompson, who had been the schoolteacher at Spring Grove. Martha believed 'all knowledge is power', who made sure that her children had a good education.

After gaining three degrees at Canterbury College in Christchurch, Rutherford won an exhibition of 1851 scholarship and used it to study at the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge.

In 1898, he accepted a professorship at McGill University in Montreal, returning to New Zealand for a short time to marry Mary Newton, the daughter of his former landlady. It was McGill University that Ernest made the first of three major discoveries of his career: the discovery that atoms of heavy elements have a tendency to decay. This heralded the 'carbon dating' technique is still important in science up to this date.

Rutherford returned to England in 1907 to be the Professor of Physics at Manchester University. Where he produced his second breakthrough, a model of the atom as a tiny nucleus surrounded by orbiting electrons.

In 1917, Ernest Rutherford claimed that he had 'broken the machine and touched the ghost of matter'. In this third major breakthrough, he had succeeded in 'splitting' the atom, making him the world's first successful alchemist. This research was published in 1919, the same year he becomes Director of the Cavendish Laboratory.

On his final trip to New Zealand in 1925, Ernest Rutherford was received as a national hero and gave talks to packed halls around the country. His call for the government to support education and research helped drive the establishment of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) the following year.

Ernest Rutherford on the $100 note of New Zealand

In December 1908, Ernest was awarded the Nobel Prize for his “investigations into the disintegration of the elements" or simply, for helping establish the principles of radioactivity. He was knighted in 1914, decorated with the Order of Merit (OM) in 1925 and made a Baron in 1931, choosing for his coat of arms a design that included a kiwi and a Māori warrior.

Many scientific institutions, streets, school houses bear his name and his image appears on the $100 note and on a stamp issued by New Zealand Post in 2008. He is the only New Zealander to have an element, rutherfordium, named in his honour. (The mineral rutherfodine is also named after him.)


Rutherford died on 19 October 1937 in Cambridge, United Kingdom of difficulties from a hernia.


References:

• Ernest Rutherford | Wikipedia
• Rutherford, Ernest | Te Ara
• Ernest Rutherford | NZ Geo
• Ernest Rutherford | NZ History

I hope you learnt something new and liked my post. Have a nice day!! Bye!!