Atom

In my opinion there were five main contributors to the evolution of the atom model. Without all these great researchers we would not have a great understanding of atoms.

Democritus- He was a Greek philosopher who developed the atomic theory of the universe. He also was the first one to come up with the term "Atom" from two Greek words meaning invincible.

John Dalton- A British physicist and chemist and contributed greatly to the development of the atomic theory. His theory stipulated that matter was made up of atoms of different weights and combine in simple ratios by weight. This idea is the basis of modern physical science.

Pierre and Maria Currie are well known in the area of science. Their contribution was that radioactive materials cause atoms to break down spontaneously and release radiation in the form of subatomic particles and energy.

Ernest Rutherford, in my opinion, is the scientist that contrubted the most. He was fundamental in the area of nuclear physics by discovering alpha and beta radiation, naming the nucleus and proton and predicted the presence of the neutron. His model of the atomic structure became the accepted model. He won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for explaining radioactivity as disintegration of atoms.

Niels Bohr was also fundamental in atomic work. He contributed explanations of the nuclear model by discovering that electrons orbited around an atom's nucleus and that they emitted or abosorbed energy. He was a student and then colleague of Ernest Rutherford and also won a Nobel prize.