Cavendish Laboratory - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.

org/wiki/Cavendish_Laboratory

Coordinates: 52°12′33.35″N 0°05′31.24″E

Cavendish Laboratory
The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics at the
University of Cambridge, and is part of the School of Physical Cavendish Laboratory
Sciences. The laboratory was opened in 1874 on the New
Museums Site as a laboratory for experimental physics and is
named after the British chemist and physicist Henry Cavendish.
The laboratory has had a huge influence on research in the
disciplines of physics and biology.

The laboratory moved to its present site in West Cambridge in

1974.

As of 2019, 30 Cavendish researchers have won Nobel Prizes.[2] Cavendish plaque at original New
Notable discoveries to have occurred at the Cavendish Laboratory Museums Site
include the discovery of the electron, neutron, and structure of Established 1874
DNA.
Affiliation University of
Cambridge
Head of Andy Parker[1]
Contents department
Founding Location Cambridge,
Physics United Kingdom

Physical chemistry Cavendish Richard Friend

Professor of
Nuclear physics
Physics
Biology
Website www.phy.cam.ac
Present site .uk (https://www.p
Nobel Laureates at the Cavendish hy.cam.ac.uk/)
Cavendish Professors of Physics
Heads of department
Cavendish Groups
Cavendish staff
Notable senior academic staff
Notable emeritus professors
Other notable alumni
References
Further reading
External links

Founding

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The Cavendish Laboratory was initially located on the New Museums Site,
Free School Lane, in the centre of Cambridge. It is named after British
chemist and physicist Henry Cavendish[3][4] for contributions to science[5]
and his relative William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire, who served as
chancellor of the university and donated funds for the construction of the
laboratory.[6]

Professor James Clerk Maxwell, the developer of electromagnetic theory,

was a founder of the laboratory and the first Cavendish Professor of
Physics.[7] The Duke of Devonshire had given to Maxwell, as head of the
laboratory, the manuscripts of Henry Cavendish's unpublished Electrical
Works. The editing and publishing of these was Maxwell's main scientific
work while he was at the laboratory. Cavendish's work aroused Maxwell's
intense admiration and he decided to call the Laboratory (formerly known
as the Devonshire Laboratory) the Cavendish Laboratory and thus to
commemorate both the Duke and Henry Cavendish.[8][9]
Entrance at the original
Physics Cavendish Laboratory
site on Free School
Lane
Several important early physics discoveries were made here, including the
discovery of the electron by J.J. Thomson (1897) the Townsend discharge
by John Sealy Townsend, and the development of the cloud
chamber by C.T.R. Wilson.

Ernest Rutherford became Director of the Cavendish Laboratory

in 1919. Under his leadership the neutron was discovered by
James Chadwick in 1932, and in the same year the first
experiment to split the nucleus in a fully controlled manner was
performed by students working under his direction; John
Cockcroft and Ernest Walton.
Sir Ernest Rutherford's physics
Physical chemistry laboratory- early 20th century

Physical Chemistry (originally the department of Colloid Science

led by Eric Rideal) had left the old Cavendish site, subsequently locating as the Department of
Physical Chemistry (under RG Norrish) in the then new chemistry building with the Department of
Chemistry (led by Lord Todd) in Lensfield Road: both chemistry departments merged in the 1980s.

Nuclear physics
In World War II the laboratory carried out research for the MAUD Committee, part of the British
Tube Alloys project of research into the atomic bomb. Researchers included Nicholas Kemmer, Alan
Nunn May, Anthony French, Samuel Curran and the French scientists including Lew Kowarski and
Hans von Halban. Several transferred to Canada in 1943; the Montreal Laboratory and some later to
the Chalk River Laboratories. The production of plutonium and neptunium by bombarding
uranium-238 with neutrons was predicted in 1940 by two teams working independently: Egon
Bretscher and Norman Feather at the Cavendish and Edwin M. McMillan and Philip Abelson at
Berkeley Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley.

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Biology
The Cavendish Laboratory has had an important influence on biology, mainly through the application
of X-ray crystallography to the study of structures of biological molecules. Francis Crick already
worked in the Medical Research Council Unit, headed by Max Perutz[10][11] and housed in the
Cavendish Laboratory, when James Watson came from the United States and they made a
breakthrough in discovering the structure of DNA. For their work while in the Cavendish Laboratory,
they were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962, together with Maurice
Wilkins of King's College London, himself a graduate of St. John's College, Cambridge.

The discovery was made on 28 February 1953; the first Watson/Crick paper appeared in Nature on 25
April 1953. Sir Lawrence Bragg, the director of the Cavendish Laboratory, where Watson and Crick
worked, gave a talk at Guy's Hospital Medical School in London on Thursday 14 May 1953 which
resulted in an article by Ritchie Calder in the News Chronicle of London, on Friday 15 May 1953,
entitled "Why You Are You. Nearer Secret of Life." The news reached readers of The New York Times
the next day; Victor K. McElheny, in researching his biography, Watson and DNA: Making a
Scientific Revolution, found a clipping of a six-paragraph New York Times article written from
London and dated 16 May 1953 with the headline "Form of `Life Unit' in Cell Is Scanned." The article
ran in an early edition and was then pulled to make space for news deemed more important. (The
New York Times subsequently ran a longer article on 12 June 1953). The Cambridge University
undergraduate newspaper Varsity also ran its own short article on the discovery on Saturday 30 May
1953. Bragg's original announcement of the discovery at a Solvay Conference on proteins in Belgium
on 8 April 1953 went unreported by the British press.

Sydney Brenner, Jack Dunitz, Dorothy Hodgkin, Leslie Orgel, and Beryl M. Oughton, were some of
the first people in April 1953 to see the model of the structure of DNA, constructed by Crick and
Watson; at the time they were working at the University of Oxford's Chemistry Department. All were
impressed by the new DNA model, especially Brenner who subsequently worked with Crick at
Cambridge in the Cavendish Laboratory and the new Laboratory of Molecular Biology. According to
the late Dr. Beryl Oughton, later Rimmer, they all travelled together in two cars once Dorothy
Hodgkin announced to them that they were off to Cambridge to see the model of the structure of
DNA.[12] Orgel also later worked with Crick at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

Present site
Due to overcrowding in the old buildings, it moved to its present
site in West Cambridge in the early 1970s.[13] It is due to move
again to a third site currently under construction in West
Cambridge.[14]

Nobel Laureates at the Cavendish

1. John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh (Physics, 1904)
2. Sir J. J. Thomson (Physics, 1906)
3. Ernest Rutherford (Chemistry, 1908)
4. Sir William Lawrence Bragg (Physics, 1915)
5. Charles Glover Barkla (Physics, 1917)
Southern aspect of the laboratory at
its current site, viewed from across
'Payne's Pond'

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6. Francis William Aston (Chemistry, 1922)

7. Charles Thomson Rees Wilson[15] (Physics, 1927)
8. Arthur Compton (Physics, 1927)
9. Sir Owen Willans Richardson (Physics, 1928)
10. Sir James Chadwick (Physics, 1935)
11. Sir George Paget Thomson[16] (Physics, 1937)
12. Sir Edward Victor Appleton (Physics, 1947)
13. Patrick Blackett, Baron Blackett (Physics, 1948)
The third iteration of the Cavendish
14. Sir John Cockcroft[17] (Physics, 1951)
Laboratory under construction in
15. Ernest Walton (Physics, 1951) 2020 on its new site at JJ Thomson
16. Francis Crick (Physiology or Medicine, 1962) Avenue
17. James Watson (Physiology or Medicine, 1962)
18. Max Perutz (Chemistry, 1962)
19. Sir John Kendrew (Chemistry, 1962)
20. Dorothy Hodgkin[18] (Chemistry, 1964)
21. Brian Josephson (Physics, 1973)
22. Sir Martin Ryle (Physics, 1974)
23. Antony Hewish (Physics, 1974)
24. Sir Nevill Francis Mott (Physics, 1977)
25. Philip Warren Anderson (Physics, 1977)
26. Pyotr Kapitsa (Physics, 1978)
27. Allan McLeod Cormack (Physiology or Medicine, 1979)
28. Mohammad Abdus Salam (Physics, 1979)
29. Sir Aaron Klug[19] (Chemistry, 1982)
30. Didier Queloz (Physics, 2019)

Cavendish Professors of Physics

The Cavendish Professors were the heads of the department until the tenure of Sir Brian Pippard,
during which period the roles separated.

1. James Clerk Maxwell FRS FRSE 1871–1879

2. John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh[20] 1879–1884
3. Sir Joseph J. Thomson FRS 1884–1919
4. Ernest Rutherford FRS, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson 1919–1937
5. Sir William Lawrence Bragg CH OBE MC FRS 1938–1953
6. Sir Nevill Francis Mott CH FRS 1954–1971
7. Sir Brian Pippard FRS[21] 1971–1984
8. Sir Sam Edwards FRS 1984–1995
9. Sir Richard Friend FRS FREng[22] 1995–present

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Heads of department
1. Professor Sir Alan Cook FRS FRSE 1979-1984
2. Professor Archie Howie CBE FRS 1989-1997
3. Professor Malcolm Longair† CBE FRS FRSE 1997-2005
4. Professor Peter Littlewood FRS 2005-2011
5. Professor James Stirling† CBE FRS 2011-2013
6. Professor Michael Andrew Parker 2013 -

† Jacksonian Professors of Natural Philosophy

Cavendish Groups

Areas in which the Laboratory has been influential include:-

Shoenberg Laboratory for Quantum Matter,[23] led by Gil Lonzarich[24]

Superconductivity Josephson junction, led by Brian Pippard[21]
Theory of Condensed Matter,[25] which is the dominant theoretical group.
Electron Microscopy Group [26] led by Archie Howie
Radio Astronomy (led by Martin Ryle[27] and Antony Hewish), with the Cavendish Astrophysics
Groups telescopes being based at Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory.
Semiconductor Physics[28]
Atomic, Mesoscopic and Optical Physics (AMOP) Group[29] led by Zoran Hadzibabic
Nanophotonics group[30] led by Jeremy Baumberg
Structure and Dynamics Group,[31] led by Jacqui Cole
Laboratory for Scientific Computing[32] led by Nikos Nikiforakis
Biological and Soft Systems Group[33] led by Pietro Cicuta

Cavendish staff
As of 2015 the laboratory is headed by Andy Parker [1] and the Cavendish Professor of Physics is Sir
Richard Friend.[22]

Notable senior academic staff

As of 2015 senior academic staff (Professors or Readers) include:[34]

1. Jeremy Baumberg FRS, Professor of Nanoscience and Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge
2. Jacqui Cole, Professor of Molecular Engineering
3. Athene Donald FRS, Professor of Experimental Physics, Master of Churchill College, Cambridge
4. Sir Richard Friend FRS, FREng, Cavendish Professor of Physics and Fellow of St John's College,
Cambridge
5. Stephen Gull, University Professor of Physics

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6. Sir Michael Pepper FRS, Kt, Honorary Professor of Pharmaceutical Science in the University of
Otago, New Zealand
7. Didier Queloz, professor at the Battcock Centre for Experimental Astrophysics
8. James Floyd Scott FRS, professor and director of research
9. Ben Simons, Herchel Smith Professor of Physics
10. Henning Sirringhaus, FRS, Hitachi Professor of Electron Device Physics and head of
Microelectronics and Optoelectronics Group
11. Sarah Teichmann, principal research associate and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge

Notable emeritus professors

The Cavendish is home to a number of emeritus scientists, pursuing their research interests in the
laboratory after their formal retirement.[34]

1. Mick Brown FRS, emeritus professor

2. Volker Heine, FRS, emeritus professor
3. Brian Josephson, FRS, emeritus professor
4. Archibald Howie, FRS, emeritus professor
5. Malcolm Longair, CBE, FRS, FRSE, Emeritus Jacksonian Professor of Natural Philosophy
6. Gil Lonzarich, FRS Emeritus Professor of Condensed Matter Physics and professorial fellow at
Trinity College, Cambridge
7. Bryan Webber, FRS Emeritus Professor of Theoretical High Energy Physics and professorial
fellow at Emmanuel College, Cambridge

Other notable alumni

Besides the Nobel Laureates, the Cavendish has many distinguished alumni including:

Louis Harold Gray FRS

Richard Edwin Hills FRS
Olga Kennard FRS
John Rodenburg FRS
Henry Snaith FRS
Evan James Williams FRS
Richard Jones FRS

References
1. "Andy Parker FInstP, CPhys, Professor of High Energy Physics" (https://web.archive.org/web/201
50713033327/http://www.phy.cam.ac.uk/directory/parkera). University of Cambridge. Archived
from the original (http://www.phy.cam.ac.uk/directory/parkera) on 2015-07-13.

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2. "Nobel Prize Winners who have worked for considerable periods of time at the Cavendish
Laboratory" (https://web.archive.org/web/20060112165035/http://www-outreach.phy.cam.ac.uk/re
sources/nobel/about.php). Archived from the original (http://www-outreach.phy.cam.ac.uk/resourc
es/nobel/about.php) on 2006-01-12.
3. "The History of the Cavendish" (http://www.phy.cam.ac.uk/history/). University of Cambridge.
Retrieved 17 August 2015.
4. "A history of the Cavendish laboratory, 1871-1910" (https://archive.org/details/historyofcavendi00l
onduoft).
5. "Professor and Laboratory " (http://www-outreach.phy.cam.ac.uk/camphy/laboratory/laboratory4_
1.htm) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20120118091305/http://www-outreach.phy.cam.ac.u
k/camphy/laboratory/laboratory4_1.htm) 2012-01-18 at the Wayback Machine, Cambridge
University
6. The Times, 4 November 1873, p. 8
7. Dennis Moralee, "Maxwell's Cavendish" (http://www.phy.cam.ac.uk/history/old_maxwell.php)
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20130915013523/http://www.phy.cam.ac.uk/history/old_ma
xwell.php) 2013-09-15 at the Wayback Machine, from the booklet "A Hundred Years and More of
Cambridge Physics"
8. "James Clerk Maxwell" (http://www-outreach.phy.cam.ac.uk/camphy/museum/area1/maxwell.htm)
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20150224014615/http://www-outreach.phy.cam.ac.uk/camp
hy/museum/area1/maxwell.htm#) 2015-02-24 at the Wayback Machine, Cambridge University
9. "Austin Wing of the Cavendish Laboratory" (https://web.archive.org/web/20121121233127/http://w
ww.austinmemories.com/page160/page160.html). Archived from the original (http://www.austinme
mories.com/page160/page160.html) on 2012-11-21.
10. Blow, D. M. (2004). "Max Ferdinand Perutz OM CH CBE. 19 May 1914 - 6 February 2002: Elected
F.R.S. 1954". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 50: 227–256.
doi:10.1098/rsbm.2004.0016 (https://doi.org/10.1098%2Frsbm.2004.0016). JSTOR 4140521 (http
s://www.jstor.org/stable/4140521). PMID 15768489 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15768489).
11. Fersht, A. R. (2002). "Max Ferdinand Perutz OM FRS" (https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fnsb0402-245).
Nature Structural Biology. 9 (4): 245–246. doi:10.1038/nsb0402-245 (https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fn
sb0402-245). PMID 11914731 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11914731).
12. Olby, Robert, Francis Crick: Hunter of Life's Secrets, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2009,
Chapter 10, p. 181 ISBN 978-0-87969-798-3
13. "West Cambridge Site Location of the Cavendish Laboratory on the University map" (http://map.ca
m.ac.uk/#52.206989,0.097120,15).
14. "Cavendish III — Department of Physics" (https://www.phy.cam.ac.uk/caviii). www.phy.cam.ac.uk.
Retrieved 2019-07-29.
15. Blackett, P. M. S. (1960). "Charles Thomson Rees Wilson 1869-1959". Biographical Memoirs of
Fellows of the Royal Society. Royal Society. 6: 269–295. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1960.0037 (https://doi.
org/10.1098%2Frsbm.1960.0037).
16. Moon, P. B. (1977). "George Paget Thomson 3 May 1892 -- 10 September 1975" (https://doi.org/1
0.1098%2Frsbm.1977.0020). Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 23: 529.
doi:10.1098/rsbm.1977.0020 (https://doi.org/10.1098%2Frsbm.1977.0020).
17. Oliphant, M. L. E.; Penney, L. (1968). "John Douglas Cockcroft. 1897-1967". Biographical
Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 14: 139. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1968.0007 (https://doi.org/10.
1098%2Frsbm.1968.0007).

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18. Dodson, Guy (2002). "Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin, O.M. 12 May 1910 - 29 July 1994".
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 48: 179–219. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2002.0011
(https://doi.org/10.1098%2Frsbm.2002.0011).
19. Amos, L.; Finch, J. T. (2004). "Aaron Klug and the revolution in biomolecular structure
determination". Trends in Cell Biology. 14 (3): 148–152. doi:10.1016/j.tcb.2004.01.002 (https://doi.
org/10.1016%2Fj.tcb.2004.01.002). PMID 15003624 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15003624).
20. O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "John William Strutt" (http://www-history.mcs.st-andrew
s.ac.uk/Biographies/Rayleigh.html), MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St
Andrews.
21. Longair, M. S.; Waldram, J. R. (2009). "Sir Alfred Brian Pippard. 7 September 1920 -- 21
September 2008" (https://doi.org/10.1098%2Frsbm.2009.0014). Biographical Memoirs of Fellows
of the Royal Society. 55: 201–220. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2009.0014 (https://doi.org/10.1098%2Frsb
m.2009.0014).
22. "FRIEND, Sir Richard (Henry)" (https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whoswho/U1649
9). Who's Who. ukwhoswho.com. 2015 (online Oxford University Press ed.). A & C Black, an
imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc. (subscription or UK public library membership (https://www.ukwhos
who.com/page/subscribe#public) required) (subscription required)
23. "Quantum Matter group" (http://www-qm.phy.cam.ac.uk/).
24. Gilbert George Lonzarich's publications (https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.url?authorId=7003
927708) indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
25. "Theory of Condensed Matter group" (http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/).
26. "Electron Microscopy Group" (http://www-hrem.msm.cam.ac.uk/).
27. Graham-Smith, F. (1986). "Martin Ryle. 27 September 1918-14 October 1984". Biographical
Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 32: 496–524. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1986.0016 (https://doi.or
g/10.1098%2Frsbm.1986.0016).
28. "Semiconductor Physics Group" (http://www.sp.phy.cam.ac.uk/).
29. "AMOP group" (http://www.amop.phy.cam.ac.uk).
30. "Nanophotonics Group" (http://www.np.phy.cam.ac.uk).
31. "Structure and Dynamics Group" (https://web.archive.org/web/20151124083122/http://www.sd.ph
y.cam.ac.uk/#). Archived from the original (http://www.sd.phy.cam.ac.uk) on 2015-11-24.
Retrieved 2018-11-22.
32. "Laboratory for Scientific Computing" (http://www.lsc.phy.cam.ac.uk).
33. "Biological and Soft Systems" (https://www.bss.phy.cam.ac.uk).
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p://www.phy.cam.ac.uk/directory/). University of Cambridge. Archived from the original (http://ww
w.phy.cam.ac.uk/directory/) on 2014-10-12.

Further reading
Longair, Malcolm (2016). Maxwell's Enduring Legacy: A Scientific History of the Cavendish
Laboratory. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-08369-1.

External links
Media related to Cavendish Laboratory at Wikimedia Commons

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Austin Memories (http://www.austinmemories.com)—History of Austin and Longbridge Cavendish

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