SIR ERNEST RUTHERFORD

Taranaki Daily News, 31 January 1930, Page 12

SIR ERNEST RUTHERFORD

WORLD-FAMOUS SCIENTIST. A SON OF NEW ZEALAND. Sir Ernest Rutherford, Kt., 0.M., F.R.S., who has been awarded the Faraday medal for conspicuous services rendered to the advancement of electrical science, may be regarded as New Zealand’s own scientist, as he was born at Spring Grove, Nelson, in 1871; was educated at Nelson College and Canterbury College, where he graduated M.A. and B.Sc., and married a Christchurch lady, Miss Mary J. Newton,, daughter of Mr. Arthur R_ Newton. He was offered a position on the staff of the New Plymouth High School in 1894, but in the same year he gained an exhibition science research scholarship, so he declined the offer from New Plymouth and went to Cambridge. It was in 1991 that he returned to New Zealand for his marriage, and at tho same time gained the degree of Doctor of Science . (N.Z.). Subsequent visits to America, Ireland and the Continent brought him fresh honours. In 1904 he was awarded the honorary degree of LL.D, by the Universities of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, McGill, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Melbourne and Yale, the degree of Pli.D. by the University of Giessen, the degree of Doctor of Science by the Universities' of Dublin and Durham, and the degree of Doctor of Physics by the Clark University. In the same year he delivered the Bakerian lecture before the Royal Society.

While at the McGill University, Montreal, as Macdonald Professor of Physics, he carried ’put, in conjunction with Professor Sodd'y," the researches which established the nature of radio-active transformations. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1903, he succeeded Sir A. Schuster in 1907 as Langworthy Professor of Physics at Manchester University, attracting a large number of students interested in the investigation of radio-activity. With the aid of some of these this branch of science was rapidly developed, One of the most important achievements in his laboratory was the experimental demonstration of the nuclear nature of the atom and the electrical structure of matter.

Sir Ernest was knighted in 1914, and in 1919 he succeeded Sir J. J. Thomson ns Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics at Cambridge, and Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institution. He received an enormous number of honorary degrees and other distinctions at Home and abroad. These included the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society, the Barnard Medal, the Bressa Prize from the Academy of Turin, the Copley (1922) and the Franklin Medal (1924). In 1908 he was awarded the Nobel Chemistry Prize, and in 1925 the Order of Merit. He was president of the British Association in 1923 and of the Royal Society in 1923. His writings include works on radio-activ-ity and numerous papers in the Royal Society’s “Transactions,” and in other scientific journals.