Ernest Rutherford

Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, OM, FRS (English: Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, August 30, 1871 - October 19, 1937), a New Zealand physicist, is known as the "father of nuclear physics" and "the greatest experimental physicist after Faraday". Rutherford first proposed the concept of radioactive half-life, demonstrating that radioactivity involves the transition from one element to another. He also classified radioactive materials into alpha rays and beta rays according to their penetrating capabilities, and confirmed that the former were helium ions. He won the 1908 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his "research on the transformation of elements and radiochemistry". Rutherford led the team to successfully prove that there is a nucleus at the center of the atom and create the Rutherford model. He was the first to successfully split atoms in the nuclear reaction between nitrogen and alpha particles. He also discovered the proton in the same experiment and named it. Element No. 104 was named "furnace" in his honor.