Latest news with #CavendishLaboratory
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
NEW RAY DOLBY - MARSHALL SCHOLARSHIP FUND ANNOUNCED, ENDOWMENT SUPPORTS THIRD-YEAR DOCTORAL RESEARCH
NEW YORK, May 26, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Association of Marshall Scholars, together with the family of pioneering sound engineer Ray Dolby, announce the "Ray Dolby - Marshall Scholarship Fund," an endowment to support Marshall Scholars who will be completing their third year of doctoral research in the United Kingdom. Ray Dolby studied physics at Cambridge University under the British government's flagship Marshall Scholarship as part of the class of 1957. Recognizing the Scholarship's role in bringing Dolby to the UK at an early stage of his research – work which subsequently transformed the nature of recorded sound across the globe - the Dolby family has given $3.6m (~£2.8m) to establish an endowment bringing comparable advanced research opportunities to future generations of Americans. The Ray Dolby - Marshall Scholarship endowment comes as Cambridge University opens the Ray Dolby Centre, supported by £85m from the Dolby estate and serving as the new center piece of the Cavendish Laboratory (Department of Physics). This national facility for physics will "support a diverse array of physics research and nurture the next generations of engineers, physicists and inventors," according to Professor Mete Atatüre, Head of the Cavendish Laboratory, "expanding the UK's science capabilities – in areas such as quantum technologies which are set to create new advanced industries and products." The Dolby family has given more than £150m in philanthropic support to Cambridge University to revitalise and develop the Cavendish Laboratory and to support a new fund for teaching and research, the Dolby Family Fund for Excellence in Physics. Ray Dolby OBE (1933-2013) was an inventor, audio pioneer, and founder of Dolby Laboratories, who transformed the sound of entertainment. Dolby's technical innovations in noise reduction and "surround sound," among other inventions, helped open new creative possibilities for cinematic and broadcast audio around the world. Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Wars, A Clockwork Orange, and A Star is Born are among the earliest of the 37,000+ films that have been created using Dolby technologies. With nearly 10,000 issued patents, the company and Ray Dolby have been recognized for their path-breaking contributions to the motion picture industry with many Academy Awards, Emmys, Grammys, and Oscars. Studying for a doctorate at the Cavendish Lab, Cambridge University, was pivotal for Dolby's career. Ray Dolby founded Dolby Laboratories in London in 1965 – bringing to it, according to his wife, Dagmar Dolby "the spirit of novel research and innovation which he had seen in Cambridge." The company took advantage of London being the world's hub for musical recordings in the 60's, working with Decca, the BBC, and many others, and eventually growing from a handful of employees to over 2,000 with 47 offices in 20 countries. Lord Chris Smith, previous Master of Pembroke College, reflects: "Ray Dolby came to Pembroke as a Marshall Scholar to do a PhD in x-ray microscopy; he went on to invent the sound system that revolutionized listening for the world. In subsequent years, he has had a major impact on Cambridge [University], supporting both Pembroke and the Cavendish Laboratory in a myriad of different ways. His commitment to the enhancement of Cambridge's facilities and the educational opportunities of our students has been second to none." As the first cohort of Ray Dolby - Marshall Scholars begins their research in the fall, Dagmar Dolby, Ray's widow, remembers: "Going to England opened Ray's eyes to the world and the exceptional creativity of the work being done at the Cavendish. It was there that he was inspired to tackle long-standing and difficult problems. Ray always acknowledged the critical role his time spent as a Marshall Scholar at Cambridge was to his development as a scientist." The endowment provided by Dolby's estate augments the British Government funded two-year Marshall Scholarship, deepening and expanding research opportunities for young American leaders studying in the United Kingdom. The philanthropic giving of Ray Dolby and his family, along with other scholars, over the past decade to their shared alma mater - Cambridge University - is 33 million pounds more than the entire cost of the Marshall Scholarship program in its 70 years of existence (adjusted for inflation) to the British Government. The Association of Marshall Scholars, made up of over 2,000 recipients of the Marshall Scholarship, builds upon the legacy of the Marshall Plan and the Marshall Scholarship, helping to expand the bounds of human knowledge and deepen ties between the United States and the United Kingdom and their shared democratic values. View original content: SOURCE Association of Marshall Scholars Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
BBC News
09-05-2025
- Science
- BBC News
Inside Cambridge's Ray Dolby Centre where history could be made
From the structure of DNA to the electron and neutron, some of the most significant scientific discoveries have been made in the Cavendish Laboratory. Founded 150 years ago to house the physics department at the University of Cambridge, the lab has relocated twice to ensure its facilities kept pace with its science. On Friday, it opens in the Ray Dolby Centre, named after the former Cambridge student who brought us surround-sound. A team of 1,000 scientists are now hoping to etch their own names in history inside the new base. The Ray Dolby Centre is as different to the original Cavendish Laboratory as a building can be. Canopies covered in copper fish scales hang above the staircases and exhibits of famous instruments are displayed in glass cases. Away from the entrance lies a warren of 173 laboratories. In many, the air is constantly filtered, light is controlled and there is no vibration. These controls are vital to the experiments now conducted here, but Dr Dave Ellis, head of nanofabrication, says those sensitivities also made moving the laboratory much harder."Some equipment, like the optics tables, can't be tilted at all, so there were rough patches of road which we had to resurface to make the journey smooth," he says. "The removals company also developed new techniques to ensure the lorries stayed stable when the equipment was moved. "Everyone went to great lengths to make it a success." In one of the new labs, PHD student Sarah Sibug-Torres is trying to develop a toilet that uses gold and lasers to analyse urine - a process called Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. "Everyone uses a loo," says Ms Sibug-Torres, "but not everyone realises the urine we flush away contains thousands of different types of molecules."[They] can give clues about whether someone is developing disease or responding to medication, for example. "Each type of molecule vibrates in a different way, so, unlike with a traditional urine dip test, we can identify these molecules even in very low concentrations."Ms Sibug-Torres hopes her work will enable early diagnosis and better all-round health in future. Other teams at the Cavendish are working on ways to use light to improve endoscopic tests for oesophageal are also creating components to help the CERN Collider in Switzerland, which aims to detect new particles furthering our understanding of dark matter in space. Dr Stefan Diesing is developing new solar panels to power the satellites that we rely on in space for GPS, communication and earth monitoring."In space, unlike on earth, there's no magnetic field to shield you against all the things that are whizzing around," he explains. "Those particles can damage the solar panels, so they don't last as long. "We're developing a much more resilient material which is also very thin."Dr Diesing says these new panels could one day enable solar farms in space, which capture energy and beam it back for use on earth. The building has been designed so research teams collaborate more and share ideas. The head of the Cavendish Laboratory, Prof Mete Atatüre, says interaction is critical but it was much harder in the old building."I loved the old lab, but it prioritised lab space over everything else," she explains."Here, you bump into people all the time and discuss your work - and that can lead to something else."While some features are deliberately different to the previous lab, others protect tradition. In the coming weeks, some of the old blackboards will be installed. Prof Atatüre insists it is important that scientists still work through problems by "getting chalk on their hands", much like their predecessors. In addition to funding from the University of Cambridge, the Ray Dolby Foundation gave £85m to the project. Ray Dolby was a PHD student in Cambridge in the 1950s and went on to invent the world famous surround-sound system that transformed music and movies from the late 1970s. The government has also provided £75m to keep the building as a national resource open to scientists from across the is also expected to inspire both students and the public the Cavendish Laboratory being home to 31 Nobel Prize winners, it is hoped this new facility will soon have a few history-makers of its own. Follow Cambridgeshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
