Also called the Rutherford gold foil experiment, this New Zealand born British physicist directed the Geiger-Marsden experiment and later was known as the father of nuclear physics. Who was he?
Ernest Rutherford Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, (30 August 1871 – 19 October 1937) was a New Zealand-born British physicist who came to be known as the father of nuclear physics. "Encyclopædia Britannica" considers him to be the greatest experimentalist since Michael Faraday (1791–1867).
Gerard Kuiper Gerard Peter Kuiper ( ; ] ; born Gerrit Pieter Kuiper; December 7, 1905 – December 23, 1973) was a Dutch–American astronomer, planetary scientist, selenographer, author and professor. He is the eponymous namesake of the Kuiper belt. Kuiper is considered by many to be the father of modern planetary science. As professor at the University of Chicago, he was dissertation advisor to Carl Sagan. In 1958, the two worked on the classified military Project A119, the secret Air Force plan to detonate a nuclear warhead on the Moon.