Cambridge Colleges are often thought of as places of teaching, and indeed they are, but their Fellows are all engaged in high-level research across a wide range of academic areas. It is their work that makes Cambridge the leading research university in the UK, and one of the very best research institutions in the world. Caius has a large and active Fellowship and makes a correspondingly large contribution to the research output of the University. In addition, our postgraduate students play a major role in the University's research activities.

Caius has a long and distinguished record of research in the arts and sciences, and today more than ever research is a vital part of our educational mission. Among our former Fellows and members number such luminaries as William Harvey, the discoverer of circulation of the blood, James Chadwick, the discoverer of the neutron, Francis Crick, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, Joseph Needham, the great historian of Chinese science, Charles Sherrington, the neurophysiologist who coined the term 'synapse', Howard Florey, the co-discoverer of penicillin, Michael Oakeshott, the influential conservative philosopher and Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize-winning economist. Today's Fellows and their graduate students continue this tradition. They are active in research fields as diverse as protein folding, gothic architecture, engineering for a low-carbon future, metaphysics, the history of political thought, comparative family law, and heart disease. It is not easy to give a representative account of the research activities of a large and productive College in a few lines, but many of our Fellows have links to their own personal and departmental websites from this site. These will often give a sense of Fellows' individual research activities. Snapshots of the research activities of some of our Fellows are available by following the appropriate link to the left of the screen.

In addition to Fellowships for senior academics, Caius provides Research Fellowships for early-career scholars with exceptional research promise. Four are appointed annually and — with several hundred applications each year — these positions are highly prized; their holders add a sparkling intellectual dimension to College life

Many current and former Caius Fellows have been awarded major national and international research prizes. Twelve current Fellows are also Fellows of the Royal Society and eight are Fellows of the British Academy, the most prestigious research societies in the sciences and arts respectively. Perhaps most strikingly, twelve Caians have won Nobel Prizes. Only one Oxbridge College (Trinity College, Cambridge) has a higher total.

Caius Nobel Laureates

1932 Sir Charles Sherrington – neurophysiologist (student and fellow)
1935 Sir James Chadwick – physicist, discoverer of the neutron (student, fellow, and master)
1945 Sir Howard Florey – co-discover of penicillin (fellow)
1954 Max Born – physicist (visiting student)
1962 Francis Crick – discovery of the structure of DNA (PhD student and honorary fellow)
1972 Sir John Hicks – economist (fellow)
1974 Anthony Hewish – astronomer (student and fellow)
1976 Milton Friedman – economist (visiting fellow)
1977 Sir Nevill Mott – theoretical physicist (fellow and Master)
1984 Sir Richard Stone – economist (student)
2001 Joseph Stiglitz – economist (fellow)
2008 Roger Tsien – chemist (fellow)

You can find out much more about the research activities of the wider University community here.