page_title: Esther Salaman
section_title: Education
hierarchical_section_title: Esther Salaman / Biography / Education
caption_attribution_description: The apparatus used by Ernest Rutherford in his atom-splitting experiments, set up on a small table in the centre of his Cambridge University research room – Cavendish Laboratory. Sir Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) was born in New Zealand, coming to England to study at Cambridge in 1895, but moving to McGill University, Montreal, Canada, in 1898. There he built upon the work of H Becquerel (1852-1908) and M Curie (1867-1934) to show that radiation was made up of alpha, beta and gamma rays. In 1911, having returned to Britain, he proposed a new structure for the atom, seeing it as a miniature solar system with the nucleus at the centre and electrons orbiting it. He went on to split the atom and, in 1920, suggested that hydrogen nuclei, or protons, were the building blocks of all matter. He received the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1908.
context_page_description: Esther "Polly" Salaman was a Russian-born Jewish writer and physicist. She is best known for her memoir on Albert Einstein, her friend and teacher while studying at the University of Berlin.
context_section_description: Despite the volatile situation for Jews in Germany, Esther and her sister Fania elected to relocate to Berlin in the summer of 1922 to resume their education. Polianowsky's application to the University of Berlin was sponsored by Albert Einstein, whose recommendation gained her admission to the Faculty of Physics, in spite of her not having completed an entrance examination. While his pupil, Polianowsky developed a personal relationship with Einstein. He encouraged her writing after reading her article in the Frankfurter Zeitung recalling the murderous pogroms in Zhytomyr by Petliura's Cossacks during Orthodox Christmas of 1918.
  As the Nazi Party rose to prominence in Germany, Polianowsky was encouraged by Einstein to leave the country after graduation. He provided her with a recommendation to pursue doctoral work at the Cavendish Laboratory under Sir Ernest Rutherford. Her scholarship, funded by Jewish philanthropist Redcliffe Salaman, was conditioned on her later going to Israel to teach. Although this plan did not come to fruition, she grew close to the Salaman family and married Redcliffe's eldest son Myer, a pathologist. Polianowsky left the Cavendish in the summer of 1928, her PhD incomplete, to devote her life to her family.
caption: The Cavendish Laboratory in 1927
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "3504", "Image ImageLength": "2589", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image ImageDescription": "Sir Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) was born in New Zealand, coming to England to study at Cambridge in 1895, but moving to McGill University, Montreal, Canada, in 1898. There he built upon the work of H Becquerel (1852-1908) and M Curie (1867-1934) to show that radiation was made up of alpha, beta and gamma rays. In 1911, having returned to Britain, he proposed a new structure for the atom, seeing it as a miniature solar system with the nucleus at the centre and electrons orbiting it. He went on to split the atom and, in 1920, suggested that hydrogen nuclei, or protons, were the building blocks of all matter. He received the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1908.", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2013:08:28 15:10:49", "Image Artist": "Science Museum", "Image Copyright": "Please read our licence terms.  All digital images must be destroyed unless otherwise agreed in writing.", "Image ExifOffset": "1060", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1210", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8631", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1250", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "924"}