University of Bristol

The University of Bristol traces its roots to a Merchant Venturers’ school (later the Merchant Venturers’ Technical College) founded in 1595 by the Society of Merchant Venturers, a Bristol-based charitable organization.

In 1876, a group of businessmen and religious leaders gathered to discuss the founding of a “College of Science and Literature for the West of England and South Wales.” This idea was brought to fruition in the form of University College, Bristol, that same year. A third institution, the Bristol Medical School, was founded in 1833.

In 1893, Bristol Medical School merged with University College, Bristol, while Merchant Venturers’ Technical School came on board in 1909—the year the University of Bristol acquired its royal charter and its current name.

Bristol is associated with 13 Nobel laureates, among whom we may name

• Physicists, Nevill Mott, Paul Dirac, Cecil Frank Powell & Hans Bethe
• Chemists, Dorothy Hodgkin, William Ramsay & Gerhard Herzberg
• Biophysicist, Max Delbrück
• Economist, Angus Deaton
• Playwright, Harold Pinter
• French novelist, J.M.G. Le Clézio

Other distinguished Bristol-connected people include the following:

• Novelist, Angela Carter
• Actors, Emily Watson, Carolyn Goodall & Tim Piggott-Smith
• Film directors, Alex Cox & Michael Winterbottom
• Philosopher, Michael Ruse
• Astrophysicist, Philip Campbell
• Physicists, David Bohm, Klaus Fuchs, M.G.K. Menon & Yakir Aharonov
• Biochemist, Michael Denton
• Aviation pioneer, Alberto Santos-Dumont
• Historian, Linda Colley
• Economist, Alfred Marshall
• Journalist and author, Misha Glenny
• TV journalist, Alastair Stewart