On 23 August 2021, an exhibition dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ernest Rutherford, the founder of nuclear physics, opens in the JINR Science and Technology Library. In 1908, he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the study of the transformation of elements and the chemistry of radioactive substances.

“The exhibition reveals E. Rutherford both as a person and a scientist,” Deputy Head of the JINR Science and Technology Library Liudmila Yurievna Levushkina comments on the exhibition. “There are selected works, individual monographs, conference proceedings, Russian and foreign books dedicated to his life and work. There are not only Russian but also foreign issues, for example, a CERN Courier journal. There is also interesting material in the latest issue of Nature about the Rutherford Scientific School. We give an idea of how important his ideas about nuclear physics are for modern science.”

The name of the scientist means a lot for JINR as far as Ernest Rutherford is called the father of nuclear physics. It was him who suggested that atoms of different chemical elements are arranged according to the principle of the planetary system, discovered the proton as a particle. Finally, he was the first man in history who synthesised one chemical element from another.

It was in JINR where a chemical element with atomic number 104 then called rutherfordium (Rf) was synthesised for the first time.

Physicist Rutherford as a person was distinguished by strong character and energy, he considered physics as the only real, fundamental science. He generously shared his ideas with numerous students and cultivated originality and independence of thinking. His student Petr Kapitsa recalled that a lot of famous scientists were brought up at his laboratory.

Welcome to the exhibition in the JINR Science and Technology Library!

The exhibition will last until 1 September.

Photos by Igor Lapenko