RUTHERFORD, ERNEST, BARON RUTHERFORD OF NELSON, OF ...

born Aug. 30, 1871, Spring Grove, N.Z. died Oct. 19, 1937, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, Eng. Rutherford, oil painting by J. Dunn, 1932; in the National Portrait Gallery, London. British physicist who laid the groundwork for the development of nuclear physics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1908. Rutherford is to be ranked in fame with Sir Isaac Newton and Michael Faraday. Indeed, just as Faraday is called the father of electricity, so a similar description might be applied to Rutherford in relation to nuclear energy. He contributed substantially to the understanding of the disintegration and transmutation of the radioactive elements, discovered and named the particles expelled from radium, identified the alpha particle as a helium atom and with its aid evolved the nuclear theory of atomic structure, and used that particle to produce the first artificial disintegration of elements. Rutherford was the principal founder of the field of atomic physics. In the universities of McGill, Manchester, and Cambridge he led and inspired two generations of physicists whoto use his own wordsturned out the facts of Nature, and in the Cavendish Laboratory his boys discovered the neutron and artificial disintegration by accelerated particles. Additional reading James Chadwick (compiler), The Collected Papers of Lord Rutherford of Nelson, 3 vol. (196265), is a useful resource. A.S. Eve, Rutherford (1939), is the official biography sanctioned by Lady Rutherford. Further studies of his life and work include E.N. da C. Andrade, Rutherford and the Nature of the Atom (1964, reprinted 1978), a biographical treatment that emphasizes the development of Rutherford's ideas; J.B. Birks (ed.), Rutherford at Manchester (1962), a discussion of his work at the university there; N. Feather, Lord Rutherford, new ed. (1973), a discussion of his research work at Cambridge University; Mario Bunge and William R. Shea (eds.), Rutherford and Physics at the Turn of the Century (1979), a discussion of developments in physics between 1895 and 1905; Thaddeus J. Trenn, The Self-splitting Atom (1977), an account of the Rutherford-Soddy collaboration; Lawrence Badash (ed.), Rutherford and Boltwood (1969), containing the correspondence between the two scientists concerning the question of radioactivity; and David Wilson, Rutherford: Simple Genius (1983), a full account incorporating much new material.