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Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937)

1908 Chemistry

For his investigations into the disintegration of the elements and the chemistry of radioactive substances.

Ernest Rutherford was the fourth child in a family of seven boys and five girls. His father, James Rutherford, was a carpenter who immigrated to New Zealand in 1842, just as his mother, Martha Thompson, would later do as a young English teacher. The two married in New Zealand and lived in Spring Grove, where they gave up much of their own comfort so that the children could receive a good education.

In his early years, Ernest Rutherford attended state schools. At the Nelson Collegiate School he was a popular boy noted for his talent in sports. With a state scholarship he started his academic life at the University of New Zealand, and in 1893 he graduated with honors in mathematics and physics. The following year he was given the opportunity to go to Trinity College, Cambridge, England, as a student investigator at the Cavendish Laboratory. Here he would be under the guidance of J.J. Thomson, the renowned scientist who had won the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Before leaving for England, Rutherford became engaged to Mary Newton. When he was in Cambridge he never stopped writing to her and his mother, who lived until the age of 92. Both religiously kept his correspondence, which reveals the many traits of this man who, despite loving his work, possessed a wide variety of interests and concerns. Rutherford was a passionate reader, loved to golf and was fond of the quiet home life. He listened attentively to others’ points of view and tried to be fair in his judgments.

In 1898, Rutherford was recommended for the physics chair at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. At the time he wrote to his fiancé that the salary he had been offered was not abundant but enough for them to start a life together. Finally, after another two years, he went to New Zealand to marry Mary Newton and visit his parents.

Rutherford was awarded the 1908 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research in the disintegration of elements and the chemistry of radioactive substances. Two years later he would come to the forefront of the field again with theories on the nucleus of the atom. In 1919 he accepted an invitation to succeed Professor Thomson at Cambridge and, despite the fact that his research was not as extensive as in earlier years, his influence on students was enormous, and he quickly won their esteem and affection.

In 1931 he was invested as First Baron Rutherford of Nelson, New Zealand, and Cambridge. When Rutherford died a few years later in Cambridge, England, his ashes were deposited in the nave of Westminster Abbey in London, near Sir Isaac Newton’s tomb.