The Beecroft Building is one of the buildings forming part of the

Department of Physics Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The Beecroft Building is immediately in front of the Lindemann Building and close to the

Clarendon Laboratory The Clarendon Laboratory, located on Parks Road within the Science Area in Oxford, England (not to be confused with the Clarendon Building, also in Oxford), is part of the Department of Physics at Oxford University. It houses the atomic and ...

Townsend Building. It is located on

Parks Road Parks Road is a road in Oxford, England, with several Oxford University colleges along its route. It runs north–south from the Banbury Road and Norham Gardens at the northern end, where it continues into Bradmore Road, to the junction with Br ...

in the Science Area of Oxford University. It is next to the

University Parks The Oxford University Parks, commonly referred to locally as the University Parks, or just The Parks, is a large parkland area slightly northeast of the city centre in Oxford, England. The park is bounded to the east by the River Cherwell, thou ...

, immediately to the north. The Beecroft Building was designed by

Hawkins\Brown Hawkins\Brown Architects LLP is an architectural practice with studios in London and Manchester. History Roger Hawkins and Russell Brown set up Hawkins\Brown in 1988. In recent years Hawkins\Brown has won and been shortlisted for awards includ ...

and completed in 2018. Planet Partitional was also involved with the contract. The budget was approximately £40 million. The building was opened by Sir

Tim Berners-Lee Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee (born 8 June 1955), also known as TimBL, is an English computer scientist best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web. He is a Professorial Fellow of Computer Science at the University of Oxford and a profess ...

(who studied

Physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

as an undergraduate at Oxford) on 17 September 2018, in the presence of Professor

Louise Richardson Dame Louise Mary Richardson (born 8 June 1958 ) is an Irish political scientist whose specialist field is the study of terrorism. In January 2016 she became the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, having formerly served as the Principa ...

( Vice-Chancellor of Oxford),

Lord Patten of Barnes Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes, (; born 12 May 1944) is a British politician who was the 28th and last Governor of Hong Kong from 1992 to 1997 and Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1992. He was made a life pe ...

(

Chancellor of Oxford This is a list of chancellors of the University of Oxford in England by year of appointment. __TOC__ Chronological list See also *List of vice-chancellors of the University of Oxford *List of University of Oxford people * List of chancello ...

), Professor

John Wheater John Feather Wheater (born 1958, London) is a British physicist, and Professor specialising in particle physics at the University of Oxford. Education Wheater was educated at the University of Oxford where he read Physics at Christ Church, Oxf ...

(Head of the Department of Physics) and

Adrian Beecroft Paul Adrian Barlow Beecroft (born Yorkshire, 20 May 1947) is a British venture capitalist based in London. He was for many years Chief Investment Officer of the private equity group Apax. He was until recently Chairman of Dawn Capital. Among th ...

(part-funder of the building). The building is named after its part-funder

. The building is specifically focused on

theoretical A theory is a rational type of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking. The process of contemplative and rational thinking is often associated with such processes as observational study or research. Theories may be ...

condensed matter Condensed matter physics is the field of physics that deals with the macroscopic and microscopic physical properties of matter, especially the solid and liquid phases which arise from electromagnetic forces between atoms. More generally, the su ...

and

quantum In physics, a quantum (plural quanta) is the minimum amount of any physical entity (physical property) involved in an interaction. The fundamental notion that a physical property can be "quantized" is referred to as "the hypothesis of quantizati ...

physics. According to ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'', the funding for this building was inspired by Beecroft's interest in

astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the h ...

References

2018 establishments in England University and college buildings completed in 2018 Department of Physics, University of Oxford University and college laboratories in the United Kingdom Physics laboratories {{UK-struct-stub