Fred Hoyle: An Online Exhibition

A History of Hoyle in 10 Objects

4: The Institute of Theorteical Astronomy and Hoyle's life in Cambridge

This is Hoyle's own design for a new building on Madingley Road in Cambridge. In 1966 the University of Cambridge and several external funding bodies came to an agreement to create an Institute of Theoretical Astronomy (IoTA), of which Hoyle would be the Director. Construction of the building started in August 1966, to a design very similar to the one shown here.

Hoyle took great care over many of the details of the building; he specified that it should have a wide, carpeted corridor in which staff could pace up and down to think without disturbing others. The building is now an integral part of the Institute of Astronomy, and has been extended both outwards and upwards. A statue of Hoyle was unveiled outside it in 1992, and the original IoTA building was renamed the ‘Hoyle Building’ in 2002.

Find out more: IoTA.

Hoyle in 10 Objects: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

Hoyle's own sketch plan of his new 'Institute for Theoretical Astronomy' opened in Cambridge in 1967. Hoyle papers 8/3/2.

Hoyle's Youth | Hoyle in Cambridge | Steady-State Universe | Stellar Nucleosynthesis | Hoyle vs Ryle | Institute of Theoretical Astronomy | Hoyle on the Radio | Hoyle the Writer | Hoyle the Polymath | Honours and Medals

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