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Ernest Rutherford
1871–1937 · New Zealand, United Kingdom · Born in the 1800s
Nobel Chemistry 1908
Discovered the atomic nucleus, identified alpha and beta radiation and achieved the first artificial nuclear transmutation.
Nobel Prize work
Nobel 1908 “for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of radioactive substances.” With Frederick Soddy he showed that radioactivity is a spontaneous transmutation of one element into another, quantified by half-lives, and identified alpha rays as helium nuclei. This work founded nuclear chemistry; the atomic nucleus and the first artificial transmutation of into came afterwards.