Cavendish Professor of Physics the university regulations which allowed students who had not studied at Cambridge to receive a B.A. by submitting a thesis which was judged "of distinction as a record of original research." Among the students attracted by this change was future Cavendish Professor Ernest Rutherford. Whilst Thomson was Cavendish Professor, he discovered the electron and the existence of isotopes, and also fostered an atmosphere of friendliness and mutual helpfulness. Rutherford returned to Cambridge in 1918, and spent the last 19 years of his life there. This was around the time of the change from classical to modern physics, and Rutherford was
University of Edinburgh School of Physics and Astronomy Notable physicists associated with the University have included Joseph Black, Max Born, Peter Higgs, James Clerk Maxwell and Peter Guthrie Tait. Five winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics are associated with the University (Edward Victor Appleton, Charles Glover Barkla, Max Born, Igor Tamm and Peter Higgs). University of Edinburgh School of Physics and Astronomy The University of Edinburgh School of Physics and Astronomy is the physics department of the University of Edinburgh. The school was formed in 1993 by a merger of the Department of Physics - called the Department of Natural Philosophy until the late 1960s - and