Cavendish Laboratory
Encyclopedia
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
at the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, and is part of the university's School of Physical Sciences. It was opened in 1874 as a teaching laboratory
Laboratory
A laboratory is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. The title of laboratory is also used for certain other facilities where the processes or equipment used are similar to those in scientific laboratories...
.
The Department is named after William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire
William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire
William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire KG, PC , styled as Lord Cavendish of Keighley between 1831 and 1834 and known as The Earl of Burlington between 1834 and 1858, was a British landowner, benefactor and politician.-Background and education:Cavendish was the son of William Cavendish, eldest...
, who was Chancellor of the University and donated money for the construction of the laboratory. Professor James Clerk Maxwell
James Clerk Maxwell
James Clerk Maxwell of Glenlair was a Scottish physicist and mathematician. His most prominent achievement was formulating classical electromagnetic theory. This united all previously unrelated observations, experiments and equations of electricity, magnetism and optics into a consistent theory...
, the developer of electromagnetic theory, was a founder of the lab and became the first Cavendish Professor of Physics
Cavendish Professor of Physics
The Cavendish Professorship is one of the senior Professorships in Physics at Cambridge University. It was founded by grace of 9 February 1871 alongside the famous Cavendish Laboratory which was completed three years later...
.
, 29 Cavendish researchers have won Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
s.
About the department
The Cavendish Laboratory was initially located on the New Museums SiteNew Museums Site
The New Museums Site is a major site of the University of Cambridge, located in the centre of the city, on Pembroke Street and Free School Lane, sandwiched between Corpus Christi College, Pembroke College and the Lion Yard. Its postcode is CB2 3QH...
, Free School Lane
Free School Lane
Free School Lane is in the centre of the City of Cambridge, England. It is the location of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, the Department of History and Philosophy of Science the University's faculty of Social and Political Sciences, and is the original site of the Cavendish...
, in the centre of Cambridge. After perennial space problems, it moved to its present site in West Cambridge
West Cambridge
West Cambridge is a university site to the west of Cambridge city centre in England. As part of the West Cambridge Master Plan, several of the University of Cambridge's departments have relocated to the West Cambridge site from the centre of town due to overcrowding...
in the early 1970s. Physical Chemistry (originally the department of Colloid Science under Eric Rideal
Eric Rideal
Sir Eric Keightley Rideal FRS was an English physical chemist. He worked on a wide range of subjects, including electrochemistry, chemical kinetics, catalysis, electrophoresis, colloids and surface chemistry. He is best known for the Eley-Rideal mechanism, which he proposed in 1938 with Daniel D....
) left the Cavendish site earlier, subsequently locating as the Department of Physical Chemistry (under RG Norrish) in the then new chemistry building with the Department of Chemistry (under Lord Todd) in Lensfield Road: both chemistry departments merged in the 1980s.
The current head of the Cavendish is James Stirling. The Cavendish Professorship of Physics
Cavendish Professor of Physics
The Cavendish Professorship is one of the senior Professorships in Physics at Cambridge University. It was founded by grace of 9 February 1871 alongside the famous Cavendish Laboratory which was completed three years later...
is currently held by Sir Richard Friend
Richard Friend
Sir Richard Henry Friend FRS is Cavendish Professor at the University of Cambridge and Tan Chin Tuan Centennial Professor at the National University of Singapore. He is a fellow of St John's College...
.
Nuclear physics
MAUD Committee
The MAUD Committee was the beginning of the British atomic bomb project, before the United Kingdom joined forces with the United States in the Manhattan Project.-Frisch & Peierls:...
, part of the British Tube Alloys
Tube Alloys
Tube Alloys was the code-name for the British nuclear weapon directorate during World War II, when the development of nuclear weapons was kept at such a high level of secrecy that it had to be referred to by code even in the highest circles of government...
project of research into the Atomic Bomb. Researchers included Nicholas Kemmer
Nicholas Kemmer
Nicholas Kemmer FRS, was a Russian born British nuclear physicist who played an integral and an edge leading role in United Kingdom's nuclear programme, and was known as a mentor of Abdus Salam – a Nobel laureate in Physics....
, Allan Nunn May, Anthony French
Anthony French
Anthony Philip French is an emeritus professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was born in Brighton, England....
, Samuel Curran
Samuel Curran
Sir Samuel Crowe Curran , FRS, FRSE, was a physicist and the first Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Strathclyde - the first of the new technical universities in Britain....
and the French scientists including Lew Kowarski
Lew Kowarski
Lew Kowarski was a naturalized French physicist, of Russian-Polish descent. He was a lesser known but important contributor to nuclear science.-Early life:...
and Hans von Halban
Hans von Halban
Hans von Halban was a French physicist, of Austrian-Jewish descent.- Family :He was descended on his father's side from Polish Jews, who left Kraków for Vienna in the 1850s...
. Several transferred to Canada in 1943; the Montreal Laboratory
Montreal Laboratory
The Montreal Laboratory in Montreal, Quebec, Canada was established by the National Research Council of Canada to undertake nuclear research, and to take over some of the scientists and projects from the Tube Alloys nuclear project in Britain...
and some later to the Chalk River Laboratories
Chalk River Laboratories
The Chalk River Laboratories is a Canadian nuclear research facility located near Chalk River, about north-west of Ottawa in the province of Ontario.CRL is a site of major research and development to support and advance nuclear technology, in particular CANDU reactor...
.
The production of plutonium
Plutonium
Plutonium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with the chemical symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, forming a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation...
and neptunium
Neptunium
Neptunium is a chemical element with the symbol Np and atomic number 93. A radioactive metal, neptunium is the first transuranic element and belongs to the actinide series. Its most stable isotope, 237Np, is a by-product of nuclear reactors and plutonium production and it can be used as a...
by bombarding uranium-238
Uranium-238
Uranium-238 is the most common isotope of uranium found in nature. It is not fissile, but is a fertile material: it can capture a slow neutron and after two beta decays become fissile plutonium-239...
with neutrons was predicted in 1940 by two teams working independently: Egon Bretscher
Egon Bretscher
Egon Bretscher was a Swiss physicist.Born near Zurich, Switzerland and educated at the ETH there, Bretscher gained a PhD degree in organic chemistry at Edinburgh in 1926. He returned to Zurich as privat docent to Peter Debye, later moving in 1936 to work in Rutherford’s laboratory at the Cavendish...
and Norman Feather
Norman Feather
Norman Feather FRS FRSE PRSE , was an English physicist.He was Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh from 1945 to 1975, then Emeritus Professor...
at the Cavendish and Edwin M. McMillan and Philip Abelson
Philip Abelson
Philip Hauge Abelson was an American physicist, a scientific editor, and a science writer.-Life:Abelson was born in 1913 in Tacoma, Washington. He attended Washington State University where he received degrees in chemistry and physics, and the University of California, Berkeley , where he earned...
at Berkeley Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
.
Biology
The Cavendish Laboratory has had an important influence on biologyBiology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
, mainly through the application of X-ray crystallography
X-ray crystallography
X-ray crystallography is a method of determining the arrangement of atoms within a crystal, in which a beam of X-rays strikes a crystal and causes the beam of light to spread into many specific directions. From the angles and intensities of these diffracted beams, a crystallographer can produce a...
to the study of structures of biological molecules. Francis Crick
Francis Crick
Francis Harry Compton Crick OM FRS was an English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist, and most noted for being one of two co-discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953, together with James D. Watson...
already worked in the Medical Research Council Unit, headed by Max Perutz
Max Perutz
Max Ferdinand Perutz, OM, CH, CBE, FRS was an Austrian-born British molecular biologist, who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with John Kendrew, for their studies of the structures of hemoglobin and globular proteins...
and housed in the Cavendish Laboratory, when James Watson
James D. Watson
James Dewey Watson is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA in 1953 with Francis Crick...
came from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and they made a breakthrough in discovering the structure of DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
. 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
Maurice Wilkins
Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins CBE FRS was a New Zealand-born English physicist and molecular biologist, and Nobel Laureate whose research contributed to the scientific understanding of phosphorescence, isotope separation, optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction, and to the development of radar...
of King's College London, himself a graduate of St. John's College, Cambridge.
Groups
Areas in which the Laboratory has been very influential since 1950 include:-- Shoenberg Laboratory for Quantum Matter http://www-qm.phy.cam.ac.uk/ (under Gil Lonzarich)
- Superconductivity Josephson junction (under A Brian PippardBrian PippardSir Alfred Brian Pippard, ScD, FRS , was a British physicist. He was Cavendish Professor of Physics from 1971 until 1984 and an Honorary Fellow of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, of which he was the first President...
) - Theory of Condensed Matter, which is the dominant theoretical group.
- Electron Microscopy (under Archie HowieArchibald HowieArchibald "Archie" Howie FRS is a British physicist, known for his pioneering work on the interpretation of transmission electron microscope images of crystals. Born in 1934, he attended Kirkcaldy High School and the University of Edinburgh. He received his PhD from the University of Cambridge,...
) - Radio AstronomyRadio astronomyRadio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies celestial objects at radio frequencies. The initial detection of radio waves from an astronomical object was made in the 1930s, when Karl Jansky observed radiation coming from the Milky Way. Subsequent observations have identified a number of...
(under Martin RyleMartin RyleSir Martin Ryle was an English radio astronomer who developed revolutionary radio telescope systems and used them for accurate location and imaging of weak radio sources...
and Antony HewishAntony HewishAntony Hewish FRS is a British radio astronomer who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974 for his work on the development of radio aperture synthesis and its role in the discovery of pulsars...
), with the Radio Astronomy Group'sCavendish Astrophysics GroupThe Cavendish Astrophysics Group is based at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. The group operates all of the telescopes at the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory except for the 32m MERLIN telescope, which is operated by Jodrell Bank.The group is the second largest of three...
telescopes being based at Mullard Radio Astronomy ObservatoryMullard Radio Astronomy ObservatoryMullard Radio Astronomy Observatory is home to a number of large aperture synthesis radio telescopes, including the One-Mile Telescope, 5-km Ryle Telescope, and the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager...
. - Semiconductor Physics
Nobel Prize winning Cavendish researchers
- Lord Rayleigh (Physics, 1904)
- Sir J.J. Thomson (Physics, 1906)
- Lord Rutherford (Ernest RutherfordErnest RutherfordErnest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson OM, FRS was a New Zealand-born British chemist and physicist who became known as the father of nuclear physics...
) (Chemistry, 1908) - Sir Lawrence Bragg (Physics, 1915)
- Charles Barkla (Physics, 1917)
- Francis Aston (Chemistry, 1922)
- C.T.R. WilsonCharles Thomson Rees WilsonCharles Thomson Rees Wilson, CH, FRS was a Scottish physicist and meteorologist who received the Nobel Prize in physics for his invention of the cloud chamber.- Biography:...
(Physics, 1927) - Arthur ComptonArthur ComptonArthur Holly Compton was an American physicist and Nobel laureate in physics for his discovery of the Compton effect. He served as Chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis from 1945 to 1953.-Early years:...
(Physics, 1927) - Sir Owen Richardson (Physics, 1928)
- Sir James Chadwick (Physics, 1935)
- Sir George ThomsonGeorge Paget ThomsonSir George Paget Thomson, FRS was an English physicist and Nobel laureate in physics recognised for his discovery with Clinton Davisson of the wave properties of the electron by electron diffraction.-Biography:...
(Physics, 1937) - Sir Edward Appleton (Physics, 1947)
- Lord Blackett (Patrick Blackett) (Physics, 1948)
- Sir John CockcroftJohn CockcroftSir John Douglas Cockcroft OM KCB CBE FRS was a British physicist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for splitting the atomic nucleus with Ernest Walton, and was instrumental in the development of nuclear power....
(Physics, 1951) - Ernest WaltonErnest WaltonErnest Thomas Sinton Walton was an Irish physicist and Nobel laureate for his work with John Cockcroft with "atom-smashing" experiments done at Cambridge University in the early 1930s, and so became the first person in history to artificially split the atom, thus ushering the nuclear age...
(Physics, 1951) - Francis CrickFrancis CrickFrancis Harry Compton Crick OM FRS was an English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist, and most noted for being one of two co-discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953, together with James D. Watson...
(Physiology or Medicine, 1962) - James WatsonJames D. WatsonJames Dewey Watson is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA in 1953 with Francis Crick...
(Physiology or Medicine, 1962) - Max PerutzMax PerutzMax Ferdinand Perutz, OM, CH, CBE, FRS was an Austrian-born British molecular biologist, who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with John Kendrew, for their studies of the structures of hemoglobin and globular proteins...
(Chemistry, 1962) - Sir John KendrewJohn KendrewSir John Cowdery Kendrew, CBE, FRS was an English biochemist and crystallographer who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Max Perutz; their group in the Cavendish Laboratory investigated the structure of heme-containing proteins.-Biography:He was born in Oxford, son of Wilford George...
(Chemistry, 1962) - Dorothy Hodgkin (Chemistry, 1964)
- Brian Josephson (Physics, 1973)
- Sir Martin Ryle (Physics, 1974)
- Antony HewishAntony HewishAntony Hewish FRS is a British radio astronomer who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974 for his work on the development of radio aperture synthesis and its role in the discovery of pulsars...
(Physics, 1974) - Sir Nevill Mott (Physics, 1977)
- Philip AndersonPhilip AndersonPhilip Anderson may refer to:* Phil Anderson , cyclist* Philip Carr Anderson, , professor of medicine* Philip W. Anderson , film editor* Philip Warren Anderson , physicist-See also:...
(Physics, 1977) - Pjotr KapitsaPyotr KapitsaPyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa was a prominent Soviet/Russian physicist and Nobel laureate.-Biography:Kapitsa was born in the city of Kronstadt and graduated from the Petrograd Polytechnical Institute in 1918. He worked for over ten years with Ernest Rutherford in the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge...
(Physics, 1978) - Allan Cormack (Physiology or Medicine, 1979)
- Sir Aaron Klug (Chemistry, 1982)
- Norman Ramsey (Physics, 1989)
Cavendish professors of physics
The Cavendish Professors were the Heads of the Department up to Professor Pippard, when the roles were made separate.- James Clerk MaxwellJames Clerk MaxwellJames Clerk Maxwell of Glenlair was a Scottish physicist and mathematician. His most prominent achievement was formulating classical electromagnetic theory. This united all previously unrelated observations, experiments and equations of electricity, magnetism and optics into a consistent theory...
1871–1879 - Lord RayleighJohn Strutt, 3rd Baron RayleighJohn William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, OM was an English physicist who, with William Ramsay, discovered the element argon, an achievement for which he earned the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1904...
1879–1884 - J. J. ThomsonJ. J. ThomsonSir Joseph John "J. J." Thomson, OM, FRS was a British physicist and Nobel laureate. He is credited for the discovery of the electron and of isotopes, and the invention of the mass spectrometer...
1884–1919 - Ernest RutherfordErnest RutherfordErnest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson OM, FRS was a New Zealand-born British chemist and physicist who became known as the father of nuclear physics...
1919–1937 - William Lawrence BraggWilliam Lawrence BraggSir William Lawrence Bragg CH OBE MC FRS was an Australian-born British physicist and X-ray crystallographer, discoverer of the Bragg law of X-ray diffraction, which is basic for the determination of crystal structure. He was joint winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1915. He was knighted...
1938–1953 - Nevill MottNevill Francis MottSir Nevill Francis Mott, CH, FRS was an English physicist. He won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1977 for his work on the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems, especially amorphous semiconductors. The award was shared with Philip W. Anderson and J. H...
1954–1971 - Brian PippardBrian PippardSir Alfred Brian Pippard, ScD, FRS , was a British physicist. He was Cavendish Professor of Physics from 1971 until 1984 and an Honorary Fellow of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, of which he was the first President...
1971–1984 - Sam EdwardsSam Edwards (physicist)Sir Samuel Frederick Edwards FLSW FRS is a British physicist.-Early life and studies:Sir Samuel was born on 1 February 1928 in Swansea, the son of Richard and Mary Jane Edwards....
1984–1995 - Richard FriendRichard FriendSir Richard Henry Friend FRS is Cavendish Professor at the University of Cambridge and Tan Chin Tuan Centennial Professor at the National University of Singapore. He is a fellow of St John's College...
1995–present