Ernest Marsden

Dead Physicist

Sir Ernest Marsden

• Date of Birth: February 19, 1889

• Date of Death: December 15, 1970

• “Radioactivity is shown to be accompanied by chemical changes in which new types of matter are being continually produced. .... The conclusion is drawn that these chemical changes must be sub-atomic in character.”

• This is a quote from Ernest Rutherford

who worked with Marsden in al his discoveries

Ethnicity and Nationality

• Born in East Lancashire, New England

• English-New Zealand physicist

Family History

• Ancestry traced to Marsden’s and Holden’s; oldest families in Darwen, Lancashire

• He was the second of a family of 4 sons and a daughter Hilda, the youngest

Education

• Attended Rishton Wesleyan School until age of ten• Was transferred to Higher Grade School at Backburn because of his

advanced skills• From there he won the an entrance scholarship to Queen

Elizabeth’s Grammar School• From this school he won a Lancashire City Council Scholarship to

the University of Manchester• Professor at the time Arthur Schuster resigned in 1907, from then

on Marsden was under Rutherford, becoming deeply interested in radioactivity

Contributions

• Observed that a tiny fraction of alpha particles fired at a thin gold foil were deflected straight back. Rutherford used this result to determine a new structure of the atom, with most of its mass concentrated in a minute central nucleus.

• New Zealand's leading scientist, founded the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) in 1926 and organized its research mainly in area of agriculture, World War II worked on radar research and 1947 became scientific liaison officer in London

Awards and Accomplishments

• Fellowship in the Royal Society of London 1946, president of the Royal Society of New Zealand 1947, the Rutherford Memorial Lecture 1948, and knighthood 1958. The Marsden Fund for basic research in New Zealand was set up in 1994

• 'The Marsden Merit Trophy' bears his name

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.practicalphysics.org/imageLibrary/jpeg350/1212.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.practicalphysics.org/go/Guidance_89.html&usg=__NpKhAdOOS_yAINrlZmSfqS5bc9U=&h=348&w=350&sz=16&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=ohNn0rv9oyHcHM:&tbnh=141&tbnw=142&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dernest%2Bmarsden%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D592%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=125&vpy=259&dur=4130&hovh=224&hovw=225&tx=163&ty=185&ei=wYK4TMCBBsGBlAfh7K2xDA&oei=wYK4TMCBBsGBlAfh7K2xDA&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:13,s:0

Sources

• http://reich-chemistry.wikispaces.com/422-004+R.+Maguire+Timeline+project

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Marsden• http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/scientists/erne

strutherford.html• http://www.communigate.co.uk/lancs/eastlancssmithfamil

ies/page2.phtml• http://www.jstor.org/pss/769716• http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/366451/Erne

st-Marsden• http://www.museumstuff.com/learn/topics/Ernest_Marsd

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