Manchester University boasts 25 Nobel prize winners

One of the interesting facts about Manchester is that the University of Manchester is third in the UK behind only Oxford and Cambridge in terms of generating Nobel Prize winners and ranking 23rd in the world. They have more working Nobel Laureates than any other university in the nation, with no less than 25 among its current and former personnel, students, and faculty.

Did you know that Ernest Rutherford split the atom for the first time at a lab at the University of Manchester? Although most people think that Switzerland is where the atom was initially split, Rutherford's laboratory in 1917 witnessed the first experimentally generated nuclear reaction. This influenced the development of nuclear energy and radiation for the treatment of cancer. For all of his contributions, Ernest Rutherford would eventually receive the Nobel Prize, and the University of Manchester has subsequently dedicated its physics building in his honor.

Not only that, but Frederic C. Williams, Tom Kilburn, and Geoff Tootill created the first modern computer here, known as the "baby." It is incredible to consider that, just over 71 years ago at Manchester University, the world's first stored-program electronic digital computer successfully ran its initial program with a memory of only 32 words. Though its original purpose was not for practical use, the Manchester Baby is the forerunner of all current computers, and for that, we should all be quite proud. Additionally, J.J. Thomson, Sir John Hicks, Sir Robert Robinson, and many others are among the Nobel laureates who attended the university.