It was founded by a bequest of £10,000 for the purpose of endowing a professorship of experimental physics by the businessman and politician E. R. Langworthy at Owens College, Manchester in 1874.^[1] Owens College later became the Victoria University of Manchester (1904) and then the University of Manchester (2004).

Several Langworthy Professors have been Nobel Laureates, including Ernest Rutherford, Lawrence Bragg, Patrick Blackett, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov.

• 1874–87 Balfour Stewart
• 1887–1907 Sir Arthur Schuster
• 1907–19 Sir Ernest Rutherford
• 1919–37 Sir William Lawrence Bragg
• 1937–53 Patrick Blackett
• 1955–60 Samuel Devons
• 1961–72 Brian Flowers
• 1987–90 Francis Graham-Smith
• 1998–2001 Frank Read
• 2001–07 Andrew Lyne
• 2007–13 Sir Andre Geim
• 2013–present Sir Konstantin Novoselov