Blackett Laboratory sciences subjects rankings, and the department in particular ranks 11th in the world, and 3rd in the UK after Cambridge and Oxford, on the QS World University Rankings. Domestically, the department ranks 5th in the Complete University Guide's 2019 physics rankings. The laboratory has connections to many physicists who had studied or taught at the department: Blackett Laboratory The Blackett Laboratory (named after Patrick Blackett) is part of the Imperial College Faculty of Natural Sciences and has housed the Department of Physics at Imperial College London since its completion in 1961. The building is located on the corner of Prince
Cavendish Professor of Physics would cost £6,300. The then chancellor of the university, William Cavendish met that cost privately 18 months later, and named the department in honor of his relative, the 18th century natural philosopher Henry Cavendish. The first Cavendish Professor was the then relatively obscure James Clerk Maxwell, who had yet to complete the work that would make him the most renowned physicist of the nineteenth century. His appointment was announced on 8 March 1871, and despite initial disappointment at his being offered the place, his inaugural lecture was looked forward to by his likely students as well as his future colleagues.