Rutherford: Ernest Rutherford

Ernest Rutherford, Baron Rutherford of Nelson (30 August 1871 – 19 October 1937) was a New Zealand physicist and chemist who was a pioneering researcher in both atomic and nuclear physics. Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937) was a New Zealand-born physicist, often referred to as the “father of nuclear physics.” He made groundbreaking contributions to the understanding of atomic structure and radioactivity, revolutionizing the field of physics. The Rutherford model is a name for the concept that an atom contains a compact nucleus. The concept arose after Ernest Rutherford directed the Geiger–Marsden experiment in 1909, which showed much more alpha particle recoil than J. J. Thomson 's plum pudding model of the atom could explain. Thomson's model had positive charge spread out in the atom. Rutherford's analysis proposed a high central charge concentrated into a very small volume in comparison to the rest of the atom and with this ... Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937) postulated the nuclear structure of the atom, discovered alpha and beta rays, and proposed the laws of radioactive decay. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908.