8. The Birthday of Ernest Rutherford, the Father of Nuclear Physics (August 30th)
On August 30th, 1871, Ernest Rutherford, First Baron Rutherford of Nelson, was born. We celebrate this date, as this was the man colloquially known as the father of nuclear physics. His significant accomplishments include discovering the concept of radioactive half-life, which is the time it takes for unstable atoms to reduce to half of their given value. In 1899, along with Robert B Owens, he discovered the element radon. He also found and named alpha and beta radiation, which was the basis for his receiving the Nobel Prize in Chemistry that he was awarded in 1908.
Rutherford is such a towering figure in the scientific community, a reason he deserves an annual birthday celebration. He has several buildings and awards named after him, such as Rutherford College, which has campus locations in Kent at the University of Kent, Canterbury, England, and Auckland, New Zealand. At Loughborough University, he has a student residence hall named after him. His name also graces several prestigious awards, notably the Rutherford Memorial Medal, which the Royal Society of Canada gives out for research in physics and chemistry. The Rutherford Medal and Prize is given out every other year for “distinguished research in nuclear physics or nuclear technology” by the Institute of Physics from the United Kingdom.