Rutherford was born at Spring Grove in the province of Nelson in 1871. He became one of the greatest scientific scholars of all time, and for his outstanding work in the field of atomic physics was created a knight, and later earned a peerage as Baron Rutherford of Nelson. His greatest contribution to science was when he propounded the nuclear theory of the atom, previously thought to be indivisible, following experiments by another famous New Zealand scientist, Dr Ernest Marsden and himself on the bombardment of metal foils with the alpha particles emitted by radium. Rutherford's work enabled others to harness energy from radioactive materials.
The two stamps depict this scientist as shown below.
1c. Lord Rutherford with a molecular structure.
7c. Lord Rutherford with a chemical formula.
