Royal Society Awards & Honours
The Royal Society is a Fellowship of the world’s most eminent scientists and is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence. Each year the Royal Society recognises achievement in science and technology through its medals, awards and prize lectures and the election of new Fellows. Fellows are elected through a peer review process. The main criterion for election as a Fellow is scientific excellence.
Fellows
Jonathan Hodgkin
1990
Barbara Pearse
1988
John D Smith
1976
David Blow
1972
Presidents
Medals
Copley Medal
Greg Winter
2024
For pioneering protein engineering, especially antibody engineering for the successful production of therapeutic antibodies.
Alan Ferscht
2020
For developing and applying the methods of protein engineering to provide descriptions of protein folding pathways at atomic resolution, revolutionising our understanding of these processes.
Richard Henderson
2016
In recognition of his fundamental and revolutionary contributions to the development of electron microscopy of biological materials, enabling their atomic structures to be deduced.
John Walker
2012
For his ground-breaking work on bioenergetics, discovering the mechanism of ATP synthesis in the mitochondrion.
Hugh Huxley
1997
In recognition of his pioneering work on the structure of muscle and on the molecular mechanisms of muscle contraction, providing solutions to one of the great problems in physiology.
Sydney Brenner
1991
In recognition of his many contributions to molecular genetics and developmental biology, and his recent role in the Human Genome mapping project.
César Milstein
1989
In recognition of his outstanding contributions to immunology, in particular to the discovery of monoclonal antibodies and to the understanding of the role of somatic mutations in the maturation of the immune response.
Aaron Klug
1985
In recognition of his outstanding contributions to our understanding of complex biological structures and the methods used for determining them.
Max Perutz
1979
In recognition of his distinguished contributions to molecular biology through his own studies of the structure and biological activity of haemoglobin and his leadership in the development of the subject.
Fred Sanger
1977
In recognition of his distinguished work on the chemical structure of proteins and his studies on the sequences of nucleic acids.
Francis Crick
1975
In recognition of his elucidation of the structure of DNA and his continuing contribution to molecular biology.
Royal Medal
Michel Goedert
2019
For his work on neurodegenerative diseases, especially for identifying and characterising key molecules that form the inclusions of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.
Greg Winter
2011
For his pioneering work in protein engineering and therapeutic monoclonal antibodies, and his contributions as an inventor and entrepreneur.
Alan Fersht
2008
For his seminal work in protein engineering, which he has developed into a fundamental tool in enzyme analysis and the problem of protein folding.
John Gurdon
1985
For his outstanding contributions to the techniques of nuclear transplantation and the use of the amphibian egg for investigations on replication, transcription and translation of genes.
César Milstein
1982
In recognition of his fundamental contribution to understanding the structure and genetic control of immunoglobulins; his hybridoma technique for producing monoclonal antibodies has revolutionized the potential practical applications of immunology.
Hugh Huxley
1977
In recognition of his distinguished research on the structure of muscle and on the molecular mechanisms of contraction.
Sydney Brenner
1974
In recognition of his distinguished contributions to molecular biology concerning the nature of the genetic code and its expression during development.
Francis Crick
1972
In recognition of his elucidation of the structure of DNA and his continuing contribution to molecular biology.
Max Perutz
1971
In recognition of his pioneering work on the molecular biology and structure of proteins.
Fred Sanger
1969
In recognition of his pioneering work on the sequence of amino acids in proteins and of nucleotides of ribonucleic acids.
John Kendrew
1965
In recognition of his distinguished contributions to the complete structural analysis of a protein molecule (myoglobin), particularly the biological aspects of this study.
Darwin Medal
John Sutherland
2014
In recognition of his novel and convincing work on prebiotic chemistry, in particular his solution to the central problem of nucleoside synthesis.
John Sulston
1996
In recognition of his leadership in the study of genome analysis with the potential to have a profound impact on the whole of biology.
Peter Lawrence
1994
In recognition of his analysis of pattern formation during insect segmentation, and of his contribution to understanding how genetic processes specify spatial information.
Davy Medal
Alan Fersht
1998
In recognition for his pioneering work on the analysis of proteins by combining the methods and ideas of physical-organic chemistry with those of protein engineering thus illuminating such processes as enzymatic catalysis, protein folding, protein-protein interactions and those macromolecule interactions in general that are dominated by the chemistry of the noncovalent bond.
Gabor Medal
Alan Fersht
1991
In recognition of his pioneering work in the use of protein engineering to study protein structure and enzyme function.
Prize Lectures
Croonian Lecture
Nigel Unwin
2000
The nicotinic acetylcholine receptor and the structural basis of synaptic transmission.
Francis Crick Lecture
Marta Zlatic
2020
For discovering how neural circuits generate behaviour by developing and disseminating definitive techniques, and by discovering fundamental principles governing circuit development and function.
Gregory Jefferis
2019
In recognition of his discoveries concerning the developmental and functional logic of sensory information processing.
M. Madan Babu
2016
In recognition of Madan’s major and widespread contributions to computational biology.
Sarah Teichmann
2012
In recognition of Sarah’s exceptional achievements in structural bioinformatics relating to decoding the principles of protein interactions.
Leeuwenhoek Medal and Lecture
Sjors Scheres
2021
For ground-breaking contributions and innovations in image analysis and reconstruction methods in electron cryomicroscopy, enabling the structure determination of complex macromolecules of fundamental biological and medical importance to atomic resolution.
Brad Amos
2012
In recognition of Brad’s exceptional impact on the field of cell biology through his co-development of the laser scanning confocal microscope.
Royal Society GlaxoSmithKline Prize and Lecture
Michael Neuberger
2003
In recognition of his work on resolving the molecular mechanism of somatic antibody diversification, a key feature of immune response, with consequences reaching far beyond immunology to DNA instability and cancer.
César Milstein
1980
In recognition of his pioneering the production of monoclonal antibodies from hybrid cell lines and initiating their application worldwide in many fields of biology and medicine.
Blackett Memorial Lecture / Jagdish Chandra Bose Memorial Lecture
Florey Lecture
Medawar Lecture
Awards
Mullard Award
John White, Brad Amos, Richard Durbin, Michael Fordham
1994
In recognition of their development of the MRC-600 series laser-scanning confocal imaging system, an ingenious and innovative means of improving the clarity and definition of microscopes.