The end of history?

The Regius Professor of History, on being asked, ‘When does history end?’, responded, ‘When they can no longer sue!’ More pertinently, I was deeply involved in managing the Laboratory from the time ofmy return to Cambridge in 1991 until the present. Any pretense at objectivity would scarcely be credible. As a consequence, this chapter is more personal than the rest of the text, but I will endeavour to stick to the facts.

The changes in the named professorships through this period were as follows:

1. • Richard Friend appointed Cavendish Professor in 1995 at the age of 42 in succession to Sam Edwards

2. • Peter Littlewood appointed to the 1966 Professorship of Theoretical Physics in succession to Volker Heine in 1997; in 2013, this chair was transferred to Didier Queloz

3. • Henning Sirringhaus appointed to the Hitachi Professorship of Electron Device Physics in 2005

4. • Ullrich Steiner appointed John Humphrey Plummer Professor of Physics in 2005

5. • Jeremy Baumberg appointed Professor of Nanoelectronics, proleptically filling the Chair of Physics held by Michael Pepper in 2007

6. • James Stirling appointed Jacksonian Professor of Natural Philosophy following my retirement from the chair in 2008

7. • Ben Simons appointed to the Herchel Smith Professorship of the Physics of Medicine in 2011

8. • Roberto Maiolino appointed Professor of Astrophysics in succession to Richard Hills in 2012.

The Heads of Department during this period were:

1. • Archie Howie: 1990–97

2. • Malcolm Longair: 1997–2005

3. • Peter Littlewood: 2005–11

4. • James Stirling: 2011–13

5. • Andy Parker: 2013–present.

The days when Rutherford could manage the Cavendish Laboratory as a single dominating presence or Thomson manage the finances of the Laboratory from his personal cheque-book were long gone. The role of the Head of Department was much more that of the chief executive officer of a middle-sized company. By 2015 the number of persons on site was approaching 1000 and the turnover about £30 million. All those who have held the post of Head of Department since 1995 have found that, in the research funding and educational climate of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, the role has become very much more demanding and time-consuming than might be expected of an academic institution. How did this come about?