Cavendish Laboratory

Building Illustration

In an article in Varsity, Siddharth Saxena, head of the Cambridge Central Asia Forum and research professor at the Cavendish Laboratory, discusses the intersection of physics and history, and how scientific thinking brings valuable perspectives to society. buff.ly/SW9rxAh

Cambridge Physics Experience participants.

One of the problem solving sessions.

Hands on practical work at the Cavendish.

Year 12 students joined us this week for the Cambridge Physics Experience: exploring a college, tackling hands-on experiments and hearing about research. Delivered three times each academic year, the programme actively challenges stereotypes and broadens access to the subject. buff.ly/U6ulyNk

New applied quantum initiative to advance research translation at the University of Cambridge Quantum technology research at Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory will benefit from a new collaboration with FormationQ, an independent platform for quantum adoption and application, to help speed translation of the University’s frontier research into real-world applications.

Find out how this collaboration will help to turn our quantum research into real-world solutions 👇 philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...

Nada Hosking, Founder and CEO of Formation Q, adds, "By uniting the Cavendish Laboratory’s scientific excellence, FormationQ’s operational backbone, and IonQ’s industry-leading quantum technologies, we’re turning today’s quantum discoveries into tomorrow’s practical revolutions.”

Mete Ature (@meteatature.bsky.social), Head of the Cavendish Laboratory, notes, “Progress in quantum technologies requires strong collaborations and a constant dialogue between industry and academic research."

Formation Q gifts £1,675,000 to launch the Quantum Technologies Accelerated Alignment Initiative, using IonQ’s world-leading technology.

The two-year applied program at the Cavendish Laboratory (@cambridgephysics.bsky.social) will help to turn quantum research into practical solutions.

New applied quantum initiative to advance research translation at Cambridge - Cavendish Laboratory Department of Physics Quantum technology research at the Cavendish Laboratory will benefit from a new collaboration with FormationQ, an independent platform for quantum adoption and application, to help speed translation…

Today we launch a new partnership with FormationQ to move quantum out of the lab and into the real-world.

Our first initiative is a two-year program focused on building the systems, pathways, and partnerships that make adoption at scale possible.

Learn more:

📣 Save the date for the Scott Lectures 2026 - Stuart Parkin, pioneer and leader in spintronic materials and devices, will join us in Cambridge for a series of three lectures open to all on 23, 25 and 27 February 2026.

More details to follow 👉️ buff.ly/3vBO3AO

Nicola Marzari portrait | Credit: Jernej Stare

Class photo of research students in the 1990s outside the Cavendish. Nicola Marzari is sitting on the grass at the far left.

Meet the 10th Cavendish Professor of Physics Nicola Marzari, who (re)joined the Cavendish Laboratory last September, continuing a historic lineage that began with James Clerk Maxwell in 1871. More about this in our latest issue of CavMag: buff.ly/52UOO91

PhD student Felicity Woolhouse uses the tunability and speed of light to explore energy materials. If you love hands-on lab work & problem-solving, then applications for the Experimental Physics Summer School are open. 6 Jul–1 Aug 2026 | Deadline: 15 Feb | buff.ly/u8I2KDs

The image is an illustration of moon with earth in the background.

✨ Cavendish scientists are turning their ground-based expertise toward a mission to the far side of the Moon to listen to one of the faintest signals in the Universe, before the first stars were born. Read the article in the latest issue of CavMag, our alumni magazine: buff.ly/6k8xUoz

The MROI telescopes and sky at night.

Group of people in the room and on video call, rasing a glass to the camera.

Nighttime close-up of MROI's first two telescopes

The Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer (MROI) sees first light!📡
By successfully achieving “First Fringes”, the project hits a crucial benchmark for proof of concept and signals the dawn of a new era in high-resolution imaging of the cosmos.

Read more about it: buff.ly/i4vR1Hb

Close-up view of an object under a microscope, with light trapped inside. Credit: Dr. Rakesh Arul

✨ The next Cambridge Physics Centre Lecture, Building the Smallest Box to Trap Light, is on 22 Jan, 6pm.
Dr Rakesh Arul will explore how we can use techniques from nanotechnology, chemistry, and physics to make light work for us. 👉 buff.ly/Jh313zw

Royce Cambridge Open Townhall Join us for coffee, cake and research presentations from previous recipients of Royce Access Scheme and ICP funding.

Royce Cambridge Townhall ☕🔬
Join us on 22 Jan, 1:30–3pm at the Maxwell Centre to hear how researchers use Royce equipment. Short talks, coffee & cake. Book now: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/royce-camb...

A printed meme on a window showing the caption “This is what I understood from my particle physics course. Nobody: Particle physicists:” followed by a photo of a hand slamming a large blue button labeled “New particle.”

If you ever wondered how the Standard Model got so crowded… there is a meme living rent-free in our lab that can explain. A weird bump in the data and we are three coffees deep proposing the Ultra-Super-Mega-Boson. Sometimes, physics is 99% maths, 1% “hear me out”!
#ParticlePhysics #PhysicsHumour

The latest issue of our #alumni magazine CavMag is out!
Edited by a talented team of postgraduate students - Daniel Robins, Bofeng Xue and Minglei Zhang - it brings together voices that connect our heritage with the exciting future ahead.

Explore the magazine online : buff.ly/xpcMC66

Illustration of a topological exciton created by light and propagating along an organic polymer chain. The text below the image reads: New Cavendish research : Excitons meet topology in organic materials.

Merging topological condensed matter and the optoelectronics of organic semiconductors, a team of researchers have uncovered topological excitons with enhanced transport properties. This work is kickstarting a whole new field of research.

Learn more about their work: buff.ly/IjuB6ox

Students conducting experiments in the undergraduate lab at the Cavendish Laboratory,

Passionate about experimental physics? Love hands-on problem-solving, building skills in the lab, and discussing ideas?
Applications open for the Experimental Physics Summer School | 6 July – 1 August 2026
| Deadlines: Early-bird 7 Jan | Final 15 Feb
🔗 buff.ly/WrfRBLJ

Cavendish students outside Payne's pond

Ray Dolby Centre Exterior

✨Welcome to Lent Term 2026✨
Whether you’re returning, starting fresh projects, teaching, studying, or simply visiting the Cavendish Laboratory, we’re excited to begin this new term together.

Here’s to curiosity, collaboration, and an inspiring year ahead💫

#CambridgePhysics

🌟✨We wish you all a wonderful New Year. May 2026 be filled with joy. Happy New Year!

Season's Greetings with a photo of the front of the Ray Dolby Centre at dusk

We will be taking a social media break over the festive period and will return in January. In the meantime, on behalf of everyone at the Cavendish, have a safe and peaceful festive season and a Happy New Year!

Image: Ray Dolby Centre ©Paul Raftery

Our research is featured among the top 3 physics discoveries of 2025 by Quanta Magazine. Using the JWST, scientists identified a huge black hole weighing 50 million Suns, challenging long-held ideas about how black holes and galaxies form.
arxiv.org/abs/2508.21748

The Cambridge winning team (from left to right): Pok Shing Hui (Chris), Tsz Yin Kwok (Tommy), Xige Hao (Kevin): Team Captain, Shuiyi Gong (Grace), Victor H. González: Team Leader and Anthony Quinlan: IOP representative. Credit: UKPT

Cavendish Laboratory undergraduates win UKPT 2025 and will represent the UK at the International Physicists’ Tournament 2026, taking place in May at Oklahoma State University. Link for the complete story: buff.ly/OMiRrVb

Students outside RDC

Inside one of the labs at Cavendish Laboratory

Students attending one of the lectures

Passionate about experimental physics? Love hands-on problem-solving and building skills in the lab? Applications are now open for the Experimental Physics Summer School for Undergraduates: 6 July – 1 Aug 2026.
Deadlines: Early-bird 7 Jan | Final 15 Feb 2026
Find out more & apply: buff.ly/ZDIF7Eg

Looking into the Earth: A Journey through Global Seismology Credit: Bay Boy of Science

LHC Credit: Wikimedia Commons

If you have a moment to slow down over the festive break, why not catch up on the latest Cambridge Physics Centre (CPC) Sixth Form Lecture recordings on our YouTube channel 🎄

▶️ Recordings of this year’s and past lectures are available here: buff.ly/3ACksDm

Verity Allan behind a large yellow glass

Verity Allan is our #PeopleDoingPhysics guest this month. From studying Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic to working on the world’s largest radio telescope, her story proves that multiple interests and an open mind can lead to amazing opportunities.

🔊https://buff.ly/lapXhgm

View of the inside of one of the two MOONS’ twin spectrographs.

Conceptual engineering illustration of MOONS at the Very Large Telescope (Credit: UK-ATC)

The 7 tonne spectrograph being lifted and ready to be loaded on one of the three lorries.

MOONS, the UK’s most advanced astronomy instrument, is on its way to Chile, and researchers from the University of Cambridge played a leading role in making it happen.
Read the full story: buff.ly/8JUSqmu
#MOONS

Cavendish IV: A Space Odyssey

🚀 Cavendish IV: A Space Odyssey by René Tronsgaard

The image depicts The Orbital Frontier - a modular, self-sustaining space station imagined as the future home of the Cavendish Laboratory 150 years from now. Commended entry in the Cavendish Photography Competion 2025 under the AI Category 👨‍🚀

Magnus Handley stood underneath the (now decommissioned) MicroBooNE cryostat.

The MicroBooNe collaboration. Credit: Fermilab

Scientists working on the @microboone experiment have found no evidence for a 4th type of neutrino. Though the new result rules out one explanation for anomalies seen in previous experiments, the mystery still remains. See Cambridge physicists' next steps: www.phy.cam.ac.uk/news/uk-scie...

Black and white image of Nicola Marzari with the words "Feynman Prizes Winner 2025 Theory - Nicola Marzari for developing the theoretical and computational infrastructure that underpins atomically precise materials discovery."

Fantastic to hear that our new Cavendish Professor, Nicola Marzari, is a @foresightinst 2025 Feynman Prizes winner (Theory) for developing the theoretical and computational infrastructure that underpins modern atomically precise materials discovery.

Many congratulations to him!