October 19, 1937 - Death of Ernest Rutherford, Nobel Prize considered one of the fathers of atomic physics

After graduating from Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1893, he moved to Cambridge University two years later to work as an assistant to Joseph J. Thomson (discoverer of the electron).

Ernest Rutherford is considered one of the fathers of this discipline for his work in atomic physics. He also researched the detection of electromagnetic radiation and the ionisation of air produced by X-rays. He studied the radioactive emissions discovered by Antoine Henry Becquerel and succeeded in classifying them into alpha, beta, and gamma rays.

In collaboration with Frederick Soddy, Rutherford formulated the theory of natural radioactivity associated with the spontaneous transformations of the elements, he collaborated with Hans Geiger in the development of the radiation counter known as the Geiger counter, he demonstrated that alpha particles are helium ions (more precisely, nuclei of the helium atom) and, he described a new atomic model (Rutherford's atomic model), which would later be perfected by Niels Bohr.

In 1908, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of the disintegration of the elements.

Rutherford's experiments also made it possible to establish an order of magnitude for the real dimensions of the atomic nucleus.

If you want to know more about this scientist, click on the following link: Ernest Rutherford