The Rutherford Medal and Prize is a subject award of the Institute of Physics, presented once every two years for distinguished research in nuclear physics or nuclear technology.
Dedicated to the late Lord Rutherford of Nelson, the Rutherford Memorial Lecture was instituted by the Council of The Physical Society in 1939. The first lecture took place in 1942. The lecture was converted into a medal and prize in 1965, and the first Rutherford Medal and Prize was awarded the following year.
"The award shall be made for distinguished research in nuclear physics or nuclear technology. The medal shall be bronze and shall be accompanied by a prize of £1000 and a certificate."
Source: Rutherford medal recipients, Institute of Physics
1942 Harold Roper Robinson
1944 John Cockcroft
1946 Mark Oliphant
1948 Ernest Marsden
1950 Alexander Smith Russell
1952 Rudolf Peierls
1954 Patrick Blackett
1956 Philip Dee
1958 Niels Bohr: Reminiscences of the Founder of Nuclear Science and of Some Developments Based on his Work
1960 Cecil Powell
1962 Denys Wilkinson
1964 Peter Fowler: π mesons versus cancer?
Rutherford Medal and Prize (1966 onwards)
1966 Peter Kapitza
1968 Brian Flowers
1970 Samuel Devons
1972 Aage Bohr
1973 James MacDonald Cassels
1974 Albert Edward Litherland
1976 Joan Maie Freeman and Roger John Blin-Stoyle
1978 Paul Taunton Matthews
1980 Paul Gayleard Murphy and John James Thresher
1982 David Maurice Brink
1984 Peter Higgs and Tom W. B. Kibble
1986 Alan Astbury
1988 John Dowell and Peter I P Kalmus
1990 Roger Julian Noel Phillips
1992 Erwin Gabathuler and Terry Sloan
1994 James Philip Elliott
1996 David Vernon Bugg
1998 Anthony Michael Hillas
2000 William R Phillips
2002 Peter John Dornan, David Plane and Wilber Venus
2004 David L Wark
2006 Ken Peach: for his contributions to high energy physics as leader of key experiments at CERN
2008 Dr Alan Copestake, Dr Stephen Walley, Mr John Stewart Kiltie, Mr Chris Weston and Mr Brian Griffin: for the development of a long-life nuclear reactor core for UK submarines.
2010 Martin Freer: for establishing the existence of nuclear configurations analogous to molecules
2012 Peter Butler: for his outstanding work in the field of experimental nuclear physics and his dynamic contributions to the future direction of the field
2014 Paul Nolan: for his outstanding contributions to Nuclear structure at extremes of angular momentum
2016 John Simpson: for his outstanding leadership in the development of new detector technologies and systems for experimental nuclear physics research within the UK and Europe, and for his seminal contributions to our understanding of the structure of atomic nuclei, especially in revealing new properties of nuclei at the limits of angular momentum, deformation, and stability.
