Cambridge is a university city in Cambridgeshire in England. The city brings many images to
mind: the breathtaking view of King's College Chapel from across the river Cam, the rich
intricacy of Gothic architecture, students cycling to lectures, and lazy summer punting
on the River Cam.
Cambridge manages to combine its role as an historic city with a world-renowned University
and, in more recent years, an internationally acknowledged centre of excellence for technology
and science. The University of Cambridge was founded in the 13th century by scholars leaving
Oxford after a dispute with townsfolk. They chose the quiet town of Cambridge as a suitable
location for study. In the 17th century Cambridge University educated many of the founders of
a (then) minor American university called Harvard, also located in a place called Cambridge
(named after the English university).
Cambridge University has many famous alumni, including: mathematicians such as Sir Isaac
Newton, philosophers such as Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein, and writers such
as John Milton and Lord Byron. It was the site of Rutherford's pioneering work in nuclear
physics as well as Crick and Watson's DNA work. Cambridge academics have won more Nobel
Prizes than those of any other university in the world.
The city is surrounded on all sides by heritage villages, towns and ancient monuments all
within easy travelling distance. Like Oxford, Cambridge was spared from the German carpet
bombing that devastated many other British cities, and is thus one of the best-preserved
medieval cities in the UK.