The memorial to scientist Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937) at Brightwater features a statue of him as a young boy. Rutherford was born at nearby Spring Grove. His family moved to the Wai-iti valley, near Foxhill, when he was five, and to Havelock when he was 11. He won a scholarship to Nelson College in 1883 and went on to Canterbury College before going overseas in 1895. For his research into the chemistry of radioactive substances Rutherford was awarded the Nobel prize in chemistry in 1908. Considered to be New Zealand’s greatest scientist, he made outstanding contributions to science including the Rutherford–Bohr nuclear model of the atom. He was also the first to split the atom.
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