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      Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937)

      1908 Chemistry

      For his investigations into the disintegration of the elements and the chemistry of radioactive substances.

      Ernest Rutherford was the fourth child in a family of seven boys and five girls. His father, James Rutherford, was a carpenter who immigrated to New Zealand in 1842, just as his mother, Martha Thompson, would later do as a young English teacher. The two married in New Zealand and lived in Spring Grove, where they gave up much of their own comfort so that the children could receive a good education.

      In his early years, Ernest Rutherford attended state schools. At the Nelson Collegiate School he was a popular boy noted for his talent in sports. With a state scholarship he started his academic life at the University of New Zealand, and in 1893 he graduated with honors in mathematics and physics. The following year he was given the opportunity to go to Trinity College, Cambridge, England, as a student investigator at the Cavendish Laboratory. Here he would be under the guidance of J.J. Thomson, the renowned scientist who had won the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physics.

      Before leaving for England, Rutherford became engaged to Mary Newton. When he was in Cambridge he never stopped writing to her and his mother, who lived until the age of 92. Both religiously kept his correspondence, which reveals the many traits of this man who, despite loving his work, possessed a wide variety of interests and concerns. Rutherford was a passionate reader, loved to golf and was fond of the quiet home life. He listened attentively to others’ points of view and tried to be fair in his judgments.

      In 1898, Rutherford was recommended for the physics chair at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. At the time he wrote to his fiancé that the salary he had been offered was not abundant but enough for them to start a life together. Finally, after another two years, he went to New Zealand to marry Mary Newton and visit his parents.

      Rutherford was awarded the 1908 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research in the disintegration of elements and the chemistry of radioactive substances. Two years later he would come to the forefront of the field again with theories on the nucleus of the atom. In 1919 he accepted an invitation to succeed Professor Thomson at Cambridge and, despite the fact that his research was not as extensive as in earlier years, his influence on students was enormous, and he quickly won their esteem and affection.

      In 1931 he was invested as First Baron Rutherford of Nelson, New Zealand, and Cambridge. When Rutherford died a few years later in Cambridge, England, his ashes were deposited in the nave of Westminster Abbey in London, near Sir Isaac Newton’s tomb.

      Guglielmo Marconi (1874–1937)

      1909 Physics

      In recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy.

      Guglielmo Marconi, Italian by birth, was the second son of Giuseppe Marconi, an Italian landowner, and Annie Jameson Marconi, descendent of a respected Irish family. Privately educated in Bologna, his birthplace, Florence and Leghorn, he showed an interest in physics and electrical experiments at a young age.

      Marconi was about 21 years old when he conducted his first successful experiment by sending wireless signals between two rooms in the attic of his father’s property on the outskirts of Bologna. He spent the following months developing the invention. Unable to find financial backing for his discovery in Italy, Marconi went to England in 1896. In the same year he took out a patent for his wireless telegraphy, and in 1897 he formed the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company Limited, the name of which was changed in 1900 to Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Company Limited.

      At noon of December 12, 1901, he achieved what the public regarded as a remarkable feat: Marconi sent a signal by wireless telegraphy from Poldhu, Cornwall, England, to Saint John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. This accomplishment was a turning point in Marconi’s life, and the moment when the world acknowledged this man who had diligently worked unnoticed for years. Soon many young physicists were following in his footsteps.

      What few know today about this inventor is that he was also a distinguished soldier. Marconi left the army with the rank of Captain in the Navy, and in 1917 he served as a member of the Italian government mission to the United States. Two years later he was a delegate at the Paris Peace Conference. His military and government service, however, never stopped his experiments with shortwave technology.

      Inventiveness and persistence sum up the character of this Italian who was at first ignored and then made famous and granted the highest honors, including the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics. Marconi shared the prize for contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy with Karl Ferdinand Braun.

      Marconi’s personal life was nearly as dramatic as his discoveries, beginning in 1905 when he married Beatrice O’Brien, the daughter of the 14th Baron Inchiquin. This marriage was annulled in 1927, the same year he married the Countess Bezzi-Scali of Rome. Despite living the high life and mixing with aristocrats, Marconi was a simple man who enjoyed hunting, cycling and automobiles. The Marchese Marconi, the title he received in 1929, died on July 20, 1937, in Rome.

      Karl Ferdinand Braun also received half of the prize.

      Nobel Laureates

      1901-1909

      1901

      Nobel Prize in Physics

      Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen

      Born March 27, 1845, in Lennep, Germany, and died February 10, 1923, in Munich. In recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of the remarkable rays subsequently named after him.

      Nobel Prize in Chemistry

      Jacobus Henricus van ’t Hoff

      Born August 30, 1852, in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and died March 1, 1911, in Steglitz, Germany. In recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by the discovery of the laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure in solutions.

      Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

      Emil Adolf von Behring

      Born March 15, 1854, in Hansdorf, Prussia, and died March 31, 1917, in Marburg, Germany. For his work on serum therapy, especially its application against

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