Cavendish Professor of Physics However, it was poorly advertised, so it was only to his students that he laid out his plans for physics at Cambridge. When Maxwell began the actual course a few days later with a lecture on heat, it was attended by academics in formal dress, in the belief that it was the first lecture. Maxwell spent the next three years supervising the construction of the dedicated Cavendish Laboratory, and published in 1873 A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism. Maxwell's health deteriorated a short time into his tenure, and he died in 1879, aged 48. Lord Rayleigh replaced Maxwell immediately upon
University of Edinburgh School of Physics and Astronomy 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 the Department of Astronomy, both at the University of Edinburgh. The school is part of the University's College of Science and Engineering. Institutions and research groups based within the school include: The school is housed in the James Clerk Maxwell Building on the University's King's Buildings campus.