Ernest Rutherford

"'The sciences are not the product of the ideas of a single man, but rather the combined wisdom of thousands, each fulfilling their role and contributing to these grand structures of knowledge which are gradually being erected for the betterment of all mankind.' - Ernest Rutherford, Baron of Nelson" Sir Ernest Rutherford, Baron of Nelson LL.D., M.A., Sc.D., FRS PRS (30, August, 1871 - 19, October, 1937) was a British chemist, diplomat, physicist and professor. During his career, Lord Rutherford served as the Professor of Physics at McGill University and the University of Oxford, Director of the Physics Laboratory of the University of Manchester, Director of the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford and forty-third President of the Royal Society. In 1908, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his investigations of radioactive substances.

Rutherford's laboratory conducted nuclei scattering and nuclear fission experiments which revealed the existence of the nucleus and successfully divided the atom, developed methods of acoustic location detection on behalf of the British Empire during the First World War and elucidated the phenomenon of the elastic scattering of charged particles caused by attraction to and repulsion from one another.

Rutherford personally depicted the structure of the atom in the first accurate, illustrated model, developed the concept of radioactive half-life, discovered the atomic nucleus, the electron and proton subatomic particles, the radioactive element radon and the distinction between alpha, beta and gamma radiation, directed the physics research departments and the experimentation laboratories of McGill University in the Dominion of Canada and the Universities of Manchester & Oxford in the United Kingdom, which developed the foundational knowledge of nuclear physics, first divided the atomic nucleus in a controlled environment and served as a member of the Board of Research for the Admiralty of the British Empire.

Trivia

 * Rutherford was bilingual and fluent in English and Latin.