My name is Ernest Rutherford and I was born in Brightwater, New Zealand on 30th August 1871. I am the fourth of twelve people in my family. My parents are James and Martha Rutherford, who migrated from the Hornchurch - Essex, United Kingdom. I graduated from my local secondary school with honours in all subjects, while earning a scholarship to Canterbury College in Christchurch. In Canterbury College, I received a BA in mathematics and physical science, then an MA later that year in the same subjects. Whilst studying in Canterbury College, I spent two years researching magnetism and the detection of radio waves. After studying at Canterbury College for two years, I took up scholarship at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge; where I continued to study magnesium. Back on the 8th November 1896, my good friend Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovered X-rays, and I was lucky enough to be asked by him to help further his research and discovery. I had the pleasure to be able to research about the induction of ionization in gasses.
A picture of myself
Canterbury College Science Lecture Theartre with the Rutherford building in the background
In 1989, I started to begin using ionization as a tool for studying radioactivity, while doing so; I almost discovered the heterogeneous nature of “Becquerel rays”. I called the non-penetrating rays’ alpha rays while the more penetrating rays were called, beta rays. A few years after my discovery, Paul Villard in Paris discovered the gamma ray, which added to my succession of my discovery. I also discovered that atoms have a little small charged nucleus, which pioneered my Rutherford model (or planetary model, which later evolved into the Bohr model or orbital model) this succeeded and won me the Nobel Prize Award. In the great year of 1908, I was awarded the honourable Nobel Prize in Chemistry for “researches on the disintegration of the elements and the chemistry of radioactive matter.” After receiving my Nobel Prize, I gave my Nobel Lecture in Stockholm on December 11 th 1908; under the title of, “The Chemical Nature of the a-Particle from Radioactive Substances” This was a great day, which I won’t forget for the rest of my life. In 1919 I became the first person to convert an element into another. When I done this conversion, I converted nitrogen into oxygen through a nuclear reaction. After discovering that atoms have a small charged nucleus inside of them, this helped further the research about atoms and helps lots of chemists figure out lots of information about atoms. This was a major breakthrough which would help chemists for thousands of years to come. My life was changed dramatically after finding out that atoms have a small charged nucleus inside of them, also discovering Becquerel Rays. From this, I have won the Honorable Nobel Prize award, which has changed me, the future generations and chemists’ life’s’ forever, making everything more easily for them and for everyone else.
Wikipedia Online,(2009)[Online], available from Internet, Accessed Feb 11: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Rutherford Ernest Rutherford's Life,(Date Not Found)[Online], available from Internet, Accessed Feb 11: http://www.physics.mcgill.ca/museum/ernest_rutherford_life.htm