The Right Honourable
The Lord Rutherford of Nelson
OM PRS HonFRSE
Sir Ernest Rutherford LCCN2014716719 - restoration1.jpg
Ernest Rutherford
President of the Royal Society
In office
1925–1930
Preceded bySir Charles Scott Sherrington
Succeeded bySir Frederick Gowland Hopkins
Personal details
Born(1871-08-30)30 August 1871
Brightwater, Colony of New Zealand
Died19 October 1937(1937-10-19) (aged 66)
Cambridge, England
Resting placeWestminster Abbey
CitizenshipBritish subject, New Zealand
Spouse(s)Mary Georgina Newton (m. 1900-1937, his death)
Children1 daughter (Eileen Mary Rutherford)
ResidenceNew Zealand, United Kingdom
Signature
Alma materUniversity of New Zealand
Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge
Known for
  • Discovery of alpha and beta radioactivity
  • Discovery of atomic nucleus (Rutherford model)
  • Rutherford scattering
  • Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy
  • Discovery of proton
  • Rutherford (unit)
  • Coining the term 'artificial disintegration'
Awards
  • Rumford Medal (1904)
  • Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1908)
  • Barnard Medal (1910)
  • Elliott Cresson Medal (1910)
  • Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences (1911)
  • Matteucci Medal (1913)
  • Hector Memorial Medal (1916)
  • Dalton Medal (1919)
  • Copley Medal (1922)
  • Franklin Medal (1924)
  • Albert Medal (1928)
  • Faraday Medal (1930)
  • Wilhelm Exner Medal (1936)
  • Faraday Lectureship Prize (1936)
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics and chemistry
Institutions
  • McGill University
  • University of Manchester
  • University of Cambridge
Academic advisors
  • Alexander Bickerton
  • J. J. Thomson
Doctoral students
  • Nazir Ahmed
  • Norman Alexander
  • Edward Victor Appleton
  • Robert William Boyle
  • James Chadwick
  • Rafi Muhammad Chaudhry
  • Norman Feather
  • Daulat Singh Kothari
  • Alexander McAulay
  • Cecil Powell
  • Henry DeWolf Smyth
  • Ernest Walton
  • Evan James Williams
  • C. E. Wynn-Williams
  • Yulii Borisovich Khariton
Other notable students
  • Edward Andrade
  • Patrick Blackett
  • Niels Bohr
  • Bertram Boltwood
  • Harriet Brooks
  • Teddy Bullard
  • John Cockcroft
  • Charles Galton Darwin
  • Charles Drummond Ellis
  • Kazimierz Fajans
  • Hans Geiger
  • Otto Hahn
  • Douglas Hartree
  • Pyotr Kapitsa
  • George Laurence
  • Iven Mackay
  • Ernest Marsden
  • Mark Oliphant
  • Thomas Royds
  • Frederick Soddy
Influenced
  • Henry Moseley
  • Hans Geiger
  • Albert Beaumont Wood