| 1871 |
born August 30 in Nelson, New
Zealand (one of 12 children) |
| 1887 |
entered Nelson Collegiate
School |
| 1889 |
awarded a University
scholarship and he proceeded to the University of New Zealand,
Wellington, where he entered Canterbury College |
| 1893 |
graduated M.A. with a double
first in Mathematics and Physical Science |
| 1894 |
continued with research work
at the College for a short time, receiving the B. Sc. Degree and
awarded an 1851 Exhibition Science Scholarship, enabling him to go
to Trinity College, Cambridge, as a research student at the
Cavendish Laboratory under J.J. Thomson |
| 1896 |
published his second paper, Magnetic
Viscosity, in the Transactions
of the New Zealand Institute |
| 1897 |
awarded the B.A. Research
Degree and the Coutts-Trotter Studentship of Trinity College |
| 1898 |
became the Macdonald Chair of
Physics at McGill University, Montreal |
| 1900 |
married Mary Newton |
| 1901 |
worked with Frederick Soddy
to prove that atoms of one radioactive element would spontaneously
turn into another, by expelling a piece of the atom at high velocity |
| 1903 |
elected Fellow of the Royal
Society |
| 1904 |
published a book, Radioactivity |
| 1906 |
published
another book, Radioactive Transformations , being his Silliman
Lectures at Yale University; |
| 1907 |
returned to England and went
to the University of Manchester and with Hans Geiger (of the Geiger
counter) set up a center to study radiation |
| 1908 |
for his work with radiation
and the atomic nucleus, he received the Nobel Prize in chemistry |
| 1909 |
accepted an invitation to succeed Sir
Joseph Thomson as Cavendish Professor of Physics at Cambridge and
discovered the atomic nucleus, developing a model of the atom that
was similar to the solar system |
| 1910 |
his investigations into the
scattering of alpha rays and the nature of the inner structure of
the atom which caused such scattering led to the postulation of his
concept of the "nucleus", his greatest contribution to
physics |
| 1912 |
Niels Bohr
joined him at Manchester and he adapted Rutherford's nuclear
structure to Max Planck's
quantum theory and so obtained a theory of atomic structure which,
with later improvements, mainly as a result of Heisenberg's
concepts, remains valid to this day |
| 1913 |
together with H. G. Moseley,
he used cathode rays to bombard atoms of various elements and showed
that the inner structures correspond with a group of lines which
characterize the elements |
| 1914 |
he was knighted |
| 1919 |
took over as director of the
Cavendish Laboratory and discovered that the nuclei of certain light
elements, such as nitrogen, could be "disintegrated" by
the impact of energetic alpha particles coming from some radioactive
source, and that during this process fast protons were emitted |
| 1925 |
appointed to the Order of
Merit and became President of the Royal Society until 1930 |
| 1931 |
made the first Baron
Rutherford of Nelson, allowing him to join the House of Lords |
| 1933 |
served as president of the
Academic Assistance Council, established to help German refugees |
| 1937 |
died in Cambridge on October
19 |
