This page has moved from: http:/www.stfc.ac.uk/About/Conts/Find/RAL/historicpeople.aspx. Please update your bookmark - thank you.
Historic People
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory: the scientists behind the name.
Ernest Lord Rutherford, 1871 - 1937
Lord Rutherford has had a profound influence of the development of physics in the last hundred years and has been described as the father of nuclear physics. He made substantial contributions to the understanding of radioactive decay, identifying the alpha particle as a helium atom and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for this work in 1908.
His most profound work was in developing the nuclear theory of the atom and the backscattering experiment that bears his name to prove this. He also produced the first artificial disintegration of elements by showing that nitrogen atoms colliding with alpha particles decay to oxygen and hydrogen.
Lord Rutherford was born in Nelson, New Zealand, educated at Canterbury College, Christchurch and Cambridge University and held chairs at McGill University, Montreal, Manchester University and Cambridge. Knighted in 1914, he become Baron Rutherford of Nelson in 1931 and died in 1937. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.
More information
Sir Edward Victor Appleton, 1892 - 1965
|Sir Edward Victor Appleton won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1947 for his discovery of a layer in the ionosphere which is a dependable reflector of radio waves and which assists in radio communications. The stability of this layer, now known as the Appleton layer, differs markedly from other layers in the ionosphere which reflect radio waves sporadically depending on the temperature and time of day.
Sir Edward gained an international reputation for his work on the propagation of electromagnetic waves and the characteristics of the ionosphere. He showed that radio waves that were of a sufficiently short wavelength to penetrate the lower region of the ionosphere are reflected by an upper region - the Appleton layer. This discovery opened up the development of long-range radio communication and assisted the development of radar.
Sir Edward was born in Bradford, England, educated at Cambridge University and held chairs at King's College, London and Cambridge. He became secretary of the government department of scientific and industrial research in 1939 and worked on the development of radar and the atomic bomb during the second world war. Knighted in 1941, he became vice-chancellor of Edinburgh University in 1949 and died in 1965.
More information
Page last updated: 01 February 2010
by Andy Mckinna
