Global South Opportunities: UKRI Early Independence Ernest Rutherford Fellowships 2026 Offer £6 Million Research Funding
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Ernest Rutherford
Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, was a New Zealand physicist and chemist who was a pioneering researcher in both atomic and nuclear physics. He has been described as "the father of nuclear physics" and "the greatest experimentalist since Michael Faraday." In 1908, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the…
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science · New Zealand physicist and chemist (1871–1937) · nuclear physicist · chemist · physicist · professor · politician · university teacher · also Ernest Rutherford, Ernest Lord Rutherford, E. Rutherford, Ernest Rutherford, primer barón Rutherford. de Nelson, Ernest, Lord Rutherford, Rutherford
Born 30 August 1871 · Died 19 October 1937 · Q9123
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2026· 4 entries
The Economic Times: Quote of the Day by ‘father of nuclear physics’ Ernest Rutherford: ‘If you don't do the best with what you have, you could never have…’ - A motivational lesson on ...
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“I do not let my boys waste their time”
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Wired-GOV: STFC announces latest Ernest Rutherford Fellows - Wired-GOV
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2020· 2 entries
Published “The Gene Ontology resource: enriching a GOld mine” in Nucleic Acids Research — cited 3,374 times.
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Published “The Gene Ontology resource: enriching a GOld mine” in Nucleic Acids Research — cited 3,411 times.
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2012· 2 entries
Published “Observation of a new boson at a mass of 125 GeV with the CMS experiment at the LHC” in Physics Letters B — cited 6,679 times.
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Published “Observation of a new boson at a mass of 125 GeV with the CMS experiment at the LHC” in Physics Letters B — cited 6,662 times.
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2011· 2 entries
Published “Expanded GGGGCC Hexanucleotide Repeat in Noncoding Region of C9ORF72 Causes Chromosome 9p-Linked FTD and ALS” in Neuron — cited 4,526 times.
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Published “Expanded GGGGCC Hexanucleotide Repeat in Noncoding Region of C9ORF72 Causes Chromosome 9p-Linked FTD and ALS” in Neuron — cited 4,512 times.
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2002· 2 entries
Published “Genome sequence of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum” in Nature — cited 3,670 times.
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Published “Genome sequence of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum” in Nature — cited 3,672 times.
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1999· 1 entry
Was named the tenth greatest physicist of all time
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1997· 2 entries
Published “Recommended standards for reports dealing with lower extremity ischemia: Revised version” in Journal of Vascular Surgery — cited 3,082 times.
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Published “Recommended standards for reports dealing with lower extremity ischemia: Revised version” in Journal of Vascular Surgery — cited 3,093 times.
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1996· 2 entries
Published “The Effect of Pravastatin on Coronary Events after Myocardial Infarction in Patients with Average Cholesterol Levels” in New England Journal of Medicine — cited 5,646 times.
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Published “The Effect of Pravastatin on Coronary Events after Myocardial Infarction in Patients with Average Cholesterol Levels” in New England Journal of Medicine — cited 5,639 times.
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1992· 2 entries
Published “Effect of Captopril on Mortality and Morbidity in Patients with Left Ventricular Dysfunction after Myocardial Infarction” in New England Journal of Medicine — cited 4,546 times.
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Published “Effect of Captopril on Mortality and Morbidity in Patients with Left Ventricular Dysfunction after Myocardial Infarction” in New England Journal of Medicine — cited 4,553 times.
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1948· 1 entry
For his work in perfecting the high-speed cloud chamber apparatus used to make that discovery and many others
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1937· 16 entries
Died 1937-10-19.
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“Tota la ciència tant pot ser física com filatèlia.”
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“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.”
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“It is just as surprising as if a gunner fired a shell at a single sheet of paper and for some reason or other the projectile bounded back again.”
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“I must confess it was very unexpected and I am very startled at my metamorphosis into a chemist.”
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“Confesso foi muito inesperado e eu estou muito assustado na minha metamorfose em um químico.”
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“Radioactivity is shown to be accompanied by chemical changes in which new types of matter are being continually produced. … The conclusion is drawn that these chemical changes must be sub-atomic in character.”
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“listed in chronological order”
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“L'energia produïda per la ruptura de l'àtom és molt minsa. Qualsevol persona que esperi una font d'energia de la transformació d'aquests àtoms està parlant de ximpleries.”
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“La radioactivitat es mostra acompanyada de canvis químics en què contínuament es produeixen nous tipus de matèria [...] aquests canvis químics han de ser de caràcter subatòmic.”
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Was buried in Westminster Abbey near Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton
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“Un presunto descubrimiento científico no tiene ningún mérito, a menos que pueda ser explicado a una camarera.”
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“Si el teu experiment necessita estadístiques, hauries d'haver fet un millor experiment.”
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“Toda la ciencia es física o filatelia.”
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“No tenim els diners, així que hem de pensar!”
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“Si tu experimento necesita estadística, hubiera sido necesario hacer un experimento mejor.”
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1936· 3 entries
Won Wilhelm Exner Medal (1936).
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Awarded Faraday Lectureship Prize (1936).
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“From a lecture delivered on October 15, 1936 at Cambridge University, discussing the result of an experiment in 1909 where alpha particles were scattered backwards when fired at a thin sheet of metal foil, which led to the discovery of the atomic nucleus. The full lecture was reprinted in Background to Modern Science: Ten Lectures at Cambridge arranged by the History of Science Committee 1936.”
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1935· 1 entry
Chadwick was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery
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1933· 2 entries
Won T. K. Sidey Medal (1933).
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“1933 October 7, The Calgary Daily Herald, Power Flow From Atoms Impossible by A. C. Cummings (Calgary Herald’s London Bureau), Quote Page 28, Column 1, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.”
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1932· 1 entry
Rutherford's theory of neutrons was proved by his associate James Chadwick, who recognised neutrons immediately when they were produced by other scientists and later himself, in bombarding beryllium with alpha particles
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1931· 3 entries
Won Echegaray Medal (1931).
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Awarded honorary doctor of the University of New Zealand (1931).
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Career landmark: member of the House of Lords (1931–1937).
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1930· 1 entry
Won Faraday Medal (1930).
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1928· 1 entry
Won Albert Medal (1928).
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1927· 1 entry
Awarded Guthrie Lecture (1927).
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1925· 2 entries
Awarded doctor honoris causa from the University of Paris (1925).
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Career landmark: President of the Royal Society (1925–1930).
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1924· 1 entry
Won Franklin Medal (1924).
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1922· 2 entries
Won Copley Medal (1922).
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Awarded IET Kelvin Lecture (1922).
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1921· 1 entry
While working with Niels Bohr, Rutherford theorised about the existence of neutrons, (which he had christened in his 1920 Bakerian Lecture), which could somehow compensate for the repelling effect of the positive charges
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1920· 1 entry
Won Royal Society Bakerian Medal (1920).
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1919· 2 entries
Won Dalton Medal (1919).
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Awarded Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi (1919).
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1917· 1 entry
Performed the first artificially induced nuclear reaction by conducting experiments in which nitrogen nuclei were bombarded with alpha particles
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1916· 1 entry
Won Hector Medal (1916).
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1913· 1 entry
Won Matteucci Medal (1913).
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1912· 2 entries
Invited Niels Bohr to join his lab, leading to the Bohr model of the atom
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Rutherford was joined by Niels Bohr (who postulated that electrons moved in specific orbits about the compact nucleus)
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1911· 1 entry
Theorised that atoms have their charge concentrated in a very small nucleus
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1910· 3 entries
Won Barnard Medal for Meritorious Service to Science (1910).
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Won Elliott Cresson Medal (1910).
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Rutherford, with Geiger and mathematician Harry Bateman published
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1909· 2 entries
“Rutherford, discussing the results of a 1909 experiment investigating alpha particle scattering, during the Cawthron Lecture at the Cawthron Institute in Nelson, New Zealand in 1925. Quoted in Arthur Stewart Eve (1939). Rutherford: Being the Life and Letters of the Rt. Hon. Lord Rutherford, O. M., p. 311”
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Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden performed the Geiger–Marsden experiment, which demonstrated the nuclear nature of atoms by measuring the deflection of alpha particles passing through a thin gold foil
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1908· 4 entries
Awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry — for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances.
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Awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1908).
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Was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances
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“Ernest Rutherford em seu Prêmio Nobel de Química de 1908, como citado em Nobel Laureates and Twentieth-Century Physics - página 69, Mauro Dardo, Cambridge University Press, 2004, ISBN 0521540089, 9780521540087”
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1907· 2 entries
Career landmark: Langworthy Professor (1907–1919).
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Returned to Britain to take the Langworthy Professorship at the Victoria University of Manchester
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1905· 1 entry
Awarded Silliman Memorial Lectures (1905).
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1904· 2 entries
Won Rumford Medal (1904).
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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
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1903· 2 entries
Awarded Bressa Prize (1903).
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Rutherford considered a type of radiation, discovered (but not named) by French chemist Paul Villard in 1900, as an emission from radium, and realised that this observation must represent something different from his own
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1902· 1 entry
“The Cause and Nature of Radioactivity" in Philosophical Magazine (September 1902)”
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1900· 1 entry
At St Paul's Anglican Church, Papanui in Christchurch, Rutherford married Mary Georgina Newton (1876–1954), to whom he had been engaged before leaving New Zealand
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1899· 1 entry
Coined the terms "alpha ray" and "beta ray" to describe these two distinct types of radiation
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1898· 2 entries
Discovered the proton in streams of ionised gas, in 1920 Rutherford postulated the hydrogen nucleus to be a new particle, which he dubbed the proton
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Rutherford accepted the Macdonald Chair of Physics at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, on Thomson's recommendation
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1896· 1 entry
Discovered he had been outdone by Guglielmo Marconi, whose radio waves had sent a message across nearly 10 miles (16 km)
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1895· 1 entry
Was awarded an 1851 Research Fellowship from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, to travel to England for postgraduate study in the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge
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1889· 1 entry
After his second attempt, he won a scholarship to study at Canterbury College, University of New Zealand, between 1890 and 1894
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1887· 1 entry
On his second attempt, he won a scholarship to study at Nelson College
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1883· 1 entry
The Rutherford family moved to Havelock, in the Marlborough Sounds, where Ernest attended Havelock School
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1871· 1 entry
Born 1871-08-30.
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