One of the great pioneers in nuclear physics, Ernest Rutherford explained the role of radioactive decay in the phenomenon of radioactivity, and proved that the positive electric charge in every atom is concentrated in a nucleus at the heart of the atom. Rutherford was also the first to transmute one chemical element into another by artificial means.

Ernest Rutherford was born near Nelson, New Zealand, on Aug. 30, 1871. In 1894 he won a scholarship to Cambridge University in England.