Ernest Rutherford, born on
30 August 1871, in Spring Grove, New Zealand, was a 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.
