a New Zealand born British physicist, is noted for his studies of radioactivity and for his discovery of the atomic nucleus. He coined the terms alpha, beta, and gamma rays to classify various forms of "rays" that were poorly understood at his time. Rutherford deflected alpha rays with both electric and magnetic fields (1903), and observed that the intensity of radioactivity declined over time, and named the halving time the "half-life. " With Frederick Soddy, he developed the "disintegration theory" of radioactivity that describes radioactive phenomena as atomic, not molecular, processes. As director of the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University, Rutherford helped direct the work of four future Nobel prize winners (Chadwick, Cockcroft, Walton and Appleton). Rutherford was awarded the 1908 Nobel Prize in chemistry.