Rutherford, Ernest

Ernest Rutherford, in full Ernest, Baron Rutherford of Nelson, (born August 30, 1871, Spring Grove, New Zealand—died October 19, 1937, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England), New Zealand-born British physicist considered the greatest experimentalist since Michael Faraday (1791–1867). Rutherford was the central figure in the study of radioactivity, and with his concept of the nuclear atom he led the exploration of nuclear physics. He won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1908, was president of the Royal Society (1925–30) and the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1923), was conferred the Order of Merit in 1925, and was raised to the peerage as Lord Rutherford of Nelson in 1931.