Final answer:
The gold foil experiment was conducted by Ernest Rutherford, assisted by Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden, leading to the discovery of the atomic nucleus.
Step-by-step explanation:
The scientist who came up with the gold foil experiment was the New Zealand physicist, Ernest Rutherford, in collaboration with Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden. Starting in 1909, they carried out a series of experiments that revolutionized the understanding of atomic structure by bombarding very thin sheets of gold foil with fast-moving alpha particles. The unexpected deflection of some alpha particles led Rutherford to conclude that the atom had a small, dense, positively charged nucleus, overthrowing the then-accepted plum pudding model of the atom.