When Rutherford began his studies at Cambridge, he was among the first aliens (those without a Cambridge degree) allowed to do research at the university, and was additionally honoured to study under J. J. Thomson.
With Thomson's encouragement, Rutherford detected radio waves at , and briefly held the world record for the distance over which electromagnetic waves could be detected, although when he presented his results at the British Association meeting in 1896, he discovered he had been outdone by Guglielmo Marconi, whose radio waves had sent a message across nearly .