Notable achievements

The University of Manchester has a rich academic heritage and can lay claim to 25 Nobel Laureates amongst its current and former staff and students.

The nuclear age was born in Manchester with Ernest Rutherford's pioneering research that led to the splitting of the atom.

Kilburn and Williams developed the first computer.

The computer revolution started here in June 1948 when a machine built by Tom Kilburn and Sir Freddie Williams, known affectionately as 'The Baby', ran its first stored programme.

It was here at the University that economist and logician WS Jevons formulated the principles of modern economics.

Lewis Namier and AJP Taylor are just two of the world-famous names to grace the University's distinguished Department of History.

It was at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire that a young Bernard Lovell built the world's largest steerable radio telescope just after the Second World War.

Great traditions have also flourished in theology, architecture, mathematics, music, law and many other areas.

The catalogue of virtuosity goes on and on. Many of our current academic staff are world-leaders in their fields and include:

• Biologist and Nobel Laureate John Sulston FRS (Institute of Science, Ethics and Innovation)
• Economist and Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz (Brooks World Poverty Institute)
• British novelist Martin Amis (Centre for New Writing)
• Political scientist Robert Putnam (Harvard/Manchester Institute for Social Change)
• Professors Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, who were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010

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