Nobel Prizes and Cavendish Professors

Since the founding of the Nobel Prizes by Alfred Nobel in 1895, 31 members of the Cavendish have won one of the illustrious prizes.

Note that not all of the Prizes are in physics.

• Lord Rayleigh (Physics, 1904)
• Sir J.J. Thomson (Physics, 1906)
• Lord Ernest Rutherford (Chemistry, 1908)
• Sir Lawrence Bragg (Physics, 1915)
• Charles Barkla (Physics, 1917)
• Francis Aston (Chemistry, 1922)
• Charles Wilson (Physics, 1927)
• Arthur Compton (Physics, 1927)
• Sir Owen Richardson (Physics, 1928)
• Sir James Chadwick (Physics, 1935)
• Sir George Thomson (Physics, 1937)
• Sir Edward Appleton (Physics, 1947)
• Lord Patrick Blackett (Physics, 1948)
• Sir John Cockcroft (Physics, 1951)
• Ernest Walton (Physics, 1951)
• Francis Crick (Physiology or Medicine, 1962)
• James Watson (Physiology or Medicine, 1962)
• Max Perutz (Chemistry, 1962)
• Sir John Kendrew (Chemistry, 1962)
• Dorothy Hodgkin (Chemistry, 1964)
• Brian Josephson (Physics, 1973)
• Sir Martin Ryle (Physics, 1974)
• Antony Hewish (Physics, 1974)
• Sir Nevill Mott (Physics, 1977)
• Philip Anderson (Physics, 1977)
• Pjotr Kapitsa (Physics, 1978)
• Allan Cormack (Physiology or Medicine, 1979)
• Sir Aaron Klug (Chemistry, 1982)
• Norman Ramsey (Physics, 1989)
• Joachim Frank (Chemistry, 2017)
• Didier Queloz (Physics, 2019)

Cavendish Professors

This historic chair, established in 1871, has played a central role in the leadership and direction of the Laboratory for over 150 years.

• 1871-1879: James Clerk Maxwell
• 1879-1884: Lord Rayleigh
• 1884-1919: J. J. Thomson
• 1919-1937: Lord Rutherford
• 1938-1953: William Lawrence Bragg
• 1954-1971: Nevill Mott
• 1971-1984: Brian Pippard
• 1984-1995: Sam Edwards
• 1995 to 2020: Richard Friend