Cavendish Laboratory

The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics of the University of Cambridge. The Department is itself part of the School of Physical Sciences. It was built in 1873 as a teaching laboratory. It was initially on the New Museums site off Free School Lane, in the centre of Cambridge. After perennial space problems, it moved to Madingley Road in West Cambridge, in the early 1970s.

The Department is named after Henry Cavendish, a famous physicist, and a member of the Dukes of Devonshire branch of the Cavendish family. Another family member, William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire, was Chancellor of the University, and he gave money to endow the laboratory in memory of his learned relative.

So far, 28 Cavendish researchers have won Nobel prizes.

There is a Cavendish Professorship of Physics.