The Cavendish Development Portfolio - Cavendish Laboratory

The Cavendish Laboratory
Physics Research Support Fund
Pump-Priming the Next Generation of Physics Research
Many of the great discoveries in physics have come from speculative
experiments carried out on the inspiration of individuals, often running
counter to the conventional majority view. The ability to encourage
research physicists at all stages in their careers, but especially early on, to
attempt bold and innovative research is at the heart of some of physics
greatest triumphs. For example, Lawrence Bragg discovered Bragg’s Law of
Diffraction as a first year graduate student.
To facilitate this key aspect of the Department’s research, a physics research
support Fund has been set up, bringing together existing funds within the
Department and providing a simple means for benefactors to contribute to the
research work of the Department at a wide range of levels. Very often, small
amounts of investment can have a quite disproportional benefit in testing out
ideas that cannot attract funding from traditional funding sources. The
guidelines for the operation of the Fund are as follows:
• A Board of Managers, chaired by the Head of the Cavendish Laboratory and
involving senior members of the Department, is responsible for the proper
management of the Fund.
• The capital and income of the Fund will be used to provide unrestricted
grants to support the research in the Cavendish Laboratory. This might be in
the form of fellowships, the provision of equipment or any other means of
supporting innovative research within the Laboratory.
• There is no restriction upon the areas of physics research that can be
supported by the Fund. The emphasis is on innovation and interdisciplinary
areas where new concepts can be exploited.
Donations of all sizes can make a difference. The Department would be
pleased to discuss naming opportunities in recognition of a major contribution
to the Fund.
High resolution image of a surface
section of a scale of the Indonesian
‘Green Swallowtail’ butterfly in
unpolarised light (left) and with the
scale placed between crossed
polarisers (right).
Head of the Cavendish: Professor Andy Parker
Andy Parker is Professor of High Energy Physics and Professorial Fellow of Peterhouse. He is a founder of the ATLAS experiment
for the Large Hadron Collider, and for 6 years he was the project leader for the ATLAS Inner Detector. His current research interests
involve experiments to reveal new physics such as extra space dimensions, quantum-sized black holes, and supersymmetry.
To find out more about this initiative please contact, in the first instance:
Madeleine Langford-Allen, Associate Director, email mla38@admin.cam.ac.uk, tel 01223 339810