A New Zealand-born British scientist who became Baron Rutherford of Nelson in 1931. He studied in New Zealand, gaining a double First in physics and mathematics, before going to Cambridge to study under Sir J. J. Thomson in the Cavendish Laboratory. He became professor of physics at the age 27 at McGill University, Canada and studied radioactivity. Working with British chemist Frederick Soddy (1877–1956), he discovered alpha particles, beta particles, and gamma radiation. He moved to Manchester University in 1907 and, working with H. Geiger and E. Marsden, he developed an experiment that led to the discovery of the atomic nucleus in 1911. In 1919 he succeeded in transforming nitrogen into an isotope of oxygen by bombarding it with alpha particles. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1908 for his work on radioactivity.

http://www.physics.mcgill.ca/museum/rutherford_museum.htm Official website of McGill University and its museum to Rutherford.