̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Royal Society

Ten Cambridge scientists elected as Fellows of the Royal Society 2024

Anonymous — Thu, 16 May 2024 08:51:02 +0000

̽��ֱ��Royal Society is a self-governing Fellowship of many of the world’s most distinguished scientists drawn from all areas of science, engineering and medicine.

̽��ֱ��Society’s fundamental purpose, as it has been since its foundation in 1660, is to recognise, promote and support excellence in science and to encourage the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity.

This year, over 90 researchers, innovators and communicators from around the world have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society for their substantial contribution to the advancement of science. Nine of these are from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

Sir Adrian Smith, President of the Royal Society said: “I am pleased to welcome such an outstanding group into the Fellowship of the Royal Society.

“This new cohort have already made significant contributions to our understanding of the world around us and continue to push the boundaries of possibility in academic research and industry.

“From visualising the sharp rise in global temperatures since the industrial revolution to leading the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, their diverse range of expertise is furthering human understanding and helping to address some of our greatest challenges. It is an honour to have them join the Fellowship.”

̽��ֱ��Fellows and Foreign Members join the ranks of Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Lise Meitner, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Dorothy Hodgkin.

̽��ֱ��new Cambridge fellows are:

Professor Sir John Aston Kt FRS

Aston is the Harding Professor of Statistics in Public Life at the Statistical Laboratory, Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics, where he develops techniques for public policy and improves the use of quantitative methods in public policy debates.

From 2017 to 2020 he was the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Home Office, providing statistical and scientific advice to ministers and officials, and was involved in the UK’s response to the Covid pandemic. He was knighted in 2021 for services to statistics and public policymaking, and is a Fellow of Churchill College.

Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore FBA FMedSci FRS

Blakemore is the Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, and leader of the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Group. Her research focuses on the development of social cognition and decision making in the human adolescent brain, and adolescent mental health.

Blakemore has been awarded several national and international prizes for her research, and is a Fellow of the British Academy, the American Association of Psychological Science and the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Professor Patrick Chinnery FMedSci FRS

Chinnery is Professor of Neurology and head of the ̽��ֱ��’s Department of Clinical Neurosciences, and a Fellow of Gonville & Caius College. He was appointed Executive Chair of the Medical Research Council last year, having previously been MRC Clinical Director since 2019.

His principal research is the role of mitochondria in human disease and developing new treatments for mitochondrial disorders. Chinnery is a Wellcome Principal Research Fellow with a lab based in the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit and jointly chairs the NIHR BioResource for Translational Research in Common and Rare Diseases. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald OBE FMedSci FRS

Fitzgerald is Professor of Cancer Prevention in the Department of Oncology and the inaugural Director of the ̽��ֱ��’s new Early Cancer Institute, which launched in 2022. She is a Fellow of Trinity College.

Her pioneering work to devise a first-in-class, non-endoscopic capsule sponge test for identifying individuals at high risk for oesophageal cancer has won numerous prizes, including the Westminster Medal, and this test is now being rolled out in the NHS and beyond by her spin-out Cyted Ltd.

Professor David Hodell FRS

Hodell is the Woodwardian Professor of Geology and Director of the Godwin Laboratory for Palaeoclimate Research in the Department of Earth Sciences, and a Fellow of Clare College.

A marine geologist and paleoclimatologist, his research focuses on high-resolution paleoclimate records from marine and lake sediments, as well as mineral deposits, to better understand past climate dynamics. Hodell is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has received the Milutin Milankovic Medal.

Professor Eric Lauga FRS

Lauga is Professor of Applied Mathematics in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, where his research is in fluid mechanics, biophysics and soft matter. Lauga is the author, or co-author, of over 180 publications and currently serves as Associate Editor for the journal Physical Review Fluids.

He is a recipient of three awards from the American Physical Society: the Andreas Acrivos Dissertation Award in Fluid Dynamics, the François Frenkiel Award for Fluid Mechanics and the Early Career Award for Soft Matter Research. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of Trinity College.

Professor George Malliaras FRS

Malliaras is the Prince Philip Professor of Technology in the Department of Engineering, where he leads a group that works on the development and translation of implantable and wearable devices that interface with electrically active tissues, with applications in neurological disorders and brain cancer.

Research conducted by Malliaras has received awards from the European Academy of Sciences, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the US National Science Foundation among others. He is a Fellow of the Materials Research Society and of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Professor Lloyd Peck FRI FRSB FRS

Peck is a marine biologist at the British Antarctic Survey and a fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge.

He identified oxygen as a factor in polar gigantism and identified problems with protein synthesis as the cause of slow development and growth in polar marine species. He was awareded a Polar Medal in 2009, the PLYMSEF Silver medal in 2015 and an Erskine Fellowship at the ̽��ֱ�� of Canterbury, Christchurch in 2016-2017.

Professor Oscar Randal-Williams FRS

Randal-Williams is the Sadleirian Professor of Pure Mathematics in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics.

He has received the Whitehead Prize from the London Mathematical Society, a Philip Leverhulme Prize, the Oberwolfach Prize, the Dannie Heineman Prize of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and was jointly awarded the Clay Research Award.

Randal-Williams is one of two managing editors of the Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, and an editor of the Journal of Topology.

Professor Mihaela van der Schaar FRS

Van der Schaar is the John Humphrey Plummer Professor of Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Medicine in the Departments of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Engineering and Medicine.

She is the founder and director of the Cambridge Centre for AI in Medicine, and a Fellow at ̽��ֱ��Alan Turing Institute. Her work has received numerous awards, including the Oon Prize on Preventative Medicine, a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, and the IEEE Darlington Award.

Van der Schaar is credited as inventor on 35 US patents, and has made over 45 contributions to international standards for which she received three ISO Awards. In 2019, a Nesta report declared her the most-cited female AI researcher in the UK.

Ten outstanding Cambridge researchers have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences and the oldest science academy in continuous existence.

Royal Society

̽��ֱ��Royal Society in central London

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

Exceptional scientists elected as Fellows of the Royal Society 2023

lw355 — Wed, 10 May 2023 10:52:57 +0000

̽��ֱ��Royal Society is a self-governing Fellowship of many of the world’s most distinguished scientists drawn from all areas of science, engineering and medicine.

This year, a total of 80 researchers, innovators and communicators from around the world have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society for their substantial contribution to the advancement of science. These include 59 Fellows, 19 Foreign Members and two Honorary Fellows.

Sir Adrian Smith, President of the Royal Society said: “I am delighted to welcome our newest cohort of Fellows. These individuals have pushed forward the boundaries of their respective fields and had a beneficial influence on the world beyond. This year’s intake have already achieved incredible things, and I have no doubt that they will continue to do so. I look forward to meeting them and following their contributions in future.”

̽��ֱ��Fellows and Foreign Members join the ranks of Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Lise Meitner, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Dorothy Hodgkin.

̽��ֱ��Cambridge Fellows are:

Professor Cathie Clarke FRS

Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics, Institute of Astronomy, and Fellow of Clare College

Clarke studies astrophysical fluid dynamics, including accretion and protoplanetary discs and stellar winds. She was the first to demonstrate how protoplanetary disc formation around low-mass young stars is determined by their radiation field. In 2017 she became the first woman to be awarded the Eddington Medal by the Royal Astronomical Society and in 2022 she became director of the Institute of Astronomy.

She said: “It's a great honour to join the many Cambridge astrophysicists who have held this title. I would like to particularly pay tribute to the many junior colleagues, PhD students and postdocs who have contributed to my research.”

Professor Christopher Jiggins FRS

Professor of Evolutionary Biology (2014), Department of Zoology, and Fellow of St John's College

Jiggins studies adaption and speciation in the Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths). In particular he is interested in studying how species converge due to mimicry as a model for understanding the predictability of evolution and the genetic and ecological causes of speciation. He demonstrated the importance of hybridisation and movement of genes between species in generating novel adaptations. He also works on the agricultural pest cotton bollworm and carries out genomic studies of the insect bioconversion species, black soldier fly.

He said: “I am amazed and delighted to receive this honour, and would thank all the amazing students, and postdocs that I have been lucky enough to work with over the years.”

Dr Philip Jones FRS

Senior Group Leader, Wellcome Sanger Institute and Professor of Cancer Development, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, and Fellow of Clare College

Jones studies how normal cell behaviour is altered by mutation in aging and the earliest stages of cancer development. He focuses on normal skin and oesophagus, which become a patchwork of mutant cells by middle age. He has found that different mutations can either promote or inhibit cancer development giving hope of new ways to prevent cancer in the future. He is also a Consultant in Medical Oncology at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.

He said: “I am delighted to be elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society. This honour is a tribute to the dedication of my research team and collaborators and support of my mentors and scientific colleagues over many years.”

Dr Lori Passmore FRS

Group Leader, Structural Studies Division, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, and Fellow of Clare Hall

Passmore a cryo-electron microscopist and structural biologist who works at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology and at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. She is known for her work on multiprotein complexes involved in gene expression and the development of new supports for cryo-EM studies. She also studies the molecular mechanisms underlying Fanconi anemia, a rare genetic disease resulting in an impaired response to DNA damage.

She said: “I am so honoured to be recognised alongside such an exceptional group of scientists. I am grateful to all the trainees, collaborators and colleagues whom I have worked with over the past years - science is truly collaborative and this is a recognition of all the courageous work of many people.”

Professor Peter Sewell FRS

Professor of Computer Science, Department of Computer Science and Technology, and Fellow of Wolfson College

Sewell’s research aims to put the engineering of the real-world computer systems that we all depend on onto better foundations, developing techniques to make systems that are better-understood, more robust and more secure. He and his group are best known for their work on the subtle relaxed-memory concurrency behaviour and detailed sequential semantics of processors and programming languages. He co-leads the CHERI cybersecurity project, for which his team have established mathematically-proven security properties of Arm's Morello industrial prototype architecture.

He said: “This honour is a testament to the work of many excellent colleagues over the years, without whom none of this would have been possible.”

Professor Ivan Smith FRS

Professor of Geometry, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, and Fellow of Caius College

Smith is a mathematician who deals with symplectic manifolds and their interaction with algebraic geometry, low-dimensional topology and dynamics. In 2007, he received the Whitehead Prize for his work in symplectic topology, highlighting the breadth of applied techniques from algebraic geometry and topology, and in 2013 the Adams Prize.

He said: “I am surprised, delighted and hugely honoured to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. I’ve been very fortunate to work in a rapidly advancing field, learning it alongside many inspirational and generous collaborators, who should definitely share this recognition.”

Professor William Sutherland CBE FRS

Miriam Rothschild Chair of Conservation Biology, Department of Zoology and Professorial Fellow of St Catharine’s College

Sutherland is a conservation scientist who is interested in improving the processes by which decisions are made. This has involved horizon scanning to identify future issues to reduce the surprises of future developments. His main work has been the industrial-scale collation of evidence to determine which interventions are effective and which are not and then establishing processes for embedding evidence in decision making. He has developed a free, online resource, Conservation Evidence, summarising evidence for the effectiveness of conservation actions to support anyone making decisions about how to maintain and restore biodiversity and an open access book Transforming Conservation: a practical guide to evidence and decision making.

He said: “I am delighted that our work on the means of improving decision making in conservation and elsewhere has been recognised in this way and thank my numerous collaborators.”

Seven outstanding Cambridge researchers have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences and the oldest science academy in continuous existence.

These individuals have pushed forward the boundaries of their respective fields and had a beneficial influence on the world beyond

Sir Adrian Smith, President of the Royal Society

Courtesy of ̽��ֱ��Royal Society

̽��ֱ��Royal Society, London

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

Nine Cambridge scientists among the new 2022 Fellows announced by the Royal Society

jg533 — Tue, 10 May 2022 11:33:12 +0000

̽��ֱ��Society’s fundamental purpose is to recognise, promote, and support excellence in science and to encourage the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity.

This year, a total of 51 Fellows, 10 Foreign Members, and one Honorary Fellow have been selected for their outstanding contributions to science.

Sir Adrian Smith, President of the Royal Society said: “It is an honour to welcome so many outstanding researchers from around the world into the Fellowship of the Royal Society.

“Through their careers so far, these researchers have helped further our understanding of human disease, biodiversity loss and the origins of the universe. I am also pleased to see so many new Fellows working in areas likely to have a transformative impact on our society over this century, from new materials and energy technologies to synthetic biology and artificial intelligence. I look forward to seeing what great things they will achieve in the years ahead.”

̽��ֱ��Cambridge Fellows are:

Professor Graham Burton FMedSci FRS

Mary Marshall and Arthur Walton Professor Emeritus of the Physiology of Reproduction, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

Burton is a reproductive biologist whose research has focused on the early stages of human pregnancy. In particular, he showed how the placenta is established in a protective low-oxygen environment, stimulating its own development through interactions with the uterus. He demonstrated that aberrations in the early stages of placental development can adversely affect the life-long health of mother and offspring. Burton was founding Director of the Centre for Trophoblast Research, and founding Chair of the Strategic Research Initiative Cambridge Reproduction.

He said: “I am delighted to receive this recognition for myself and the field of reproductive biology, and thank colleagues and collaborators for their contributions over the years.”

Professor Roberto Cipolla FREng FRS

Professor of Information Engineering, Department of Engineering, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

Cipolla is distinguished for his research in computer vision and his contributions to the reconstruction, registration and recognition of three-dimensional objects from images. These include novel algorithms for the recovery of accurate 3D shape, visual localisation and semantic segmentation and their translation into commercial products.

He said: "This is the ultimate honour for any scientist and recognises the amazing contribution of my students, collaborators and mentors in my 30 years at Cambridge. I am also very fortunate to be working in the field of computer vision and machine learning at a time of revolutionary progress and ground-breaking applications.”

Professor Douglas Easton FMedSci FRS

Professor of Genetic Epidemiology, Centre for Cancer Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

Easton’s main research interests are in cancer genetics. He analyses large population studies to identify genetic variants that predispose to cancer, and to understand how they combine together with other factors to determine cancer risk. His work has characterised many important cancer genes such as BRCA1 and BRCA2, and identified of hundreds of common cancer predisposition variants in the non-coding genome. He co-developed the BOADICEA risk prediction model now used worldwide to guide genetic counselling and cancer prevention.

He said: "I am truly delighted and honoured to be elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society. This prestigious honour is a tribute the work of many wonderful colleagues in Cambridge and worldwide, over many years, who have made the research possible."

Professor Robin Franklin FMedSci FRS

Formerly Professor of Stem Cell Medicine, Wellcome - MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge; now Principal Investigator, Altos Labs - Cambridge Institute

̽��ֱ��central question of Franklin’s career is 'how do tissues regenerate?' To address this question, he has studied the brain, an organ notorious for its poor regenerative capacity. Working with many excellent colleagues, he has described how stem cells in the adult brain regenerate oligodendrocytes - the cells responsible for making the insulating myelin sheath around nerve fibres - once they are lost in diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS); how this process declines with age; and it can be reversed. ̽��ֱ��work has led to two regenerative medicine trials in MS.

He said: “I am absolutely delighted to have been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society - it is a huge honour.”

Professor Richard Gilbertson FMedSci FRS

Li Ka Shing Chair of Oncology and Head of Department of Oncology, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, Director of Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre and Senior Group Leader, Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute

Gilbertson, a paediatric physician-scientist, has identified the origins of common and aggressive childhood brain tumours and many of the genetic alterations that drive these tumours. His research has helped establish a direct link between disordered development and the multiple different brain tumour types observed in children: contributing directly to their classification by the World Health Organisation (WHO); changing the way conventional treatments are used, sparing children from unnecessary side effects; and underpinning clinical trials of new therapies.

Gilbertson said: “I am truly delighted and humbled to receive this recognition that I share with all the wonderful students, trainees and colleagues I have worked with over the years.”

Professor Paul Lehner FMedSci FRS

Professor of Immunology and Medicine, Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

Lehner studies virus-host antagonism and how our genome is defended from invasion by RNA-derived retroelements such as HIV. His discovery of the ‘HUSH’ epigenetic silencing complex explains how the genome distinguishes new genetic material from endogenous genes through recognition of intronless DNA. This work uncovered an unanticipated surveillance system that discriminates ‘self’ from ‘non-self’ genomic DNA and defends our genome against the reverse flow of genetic information (RNA to DNA), paving the way to novel applications in medicine and biotechnology.

Lehner said: “I’m absolutely delighted to be elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society; I’ve been fortunate to work with incredibly talented people and this honour recognises the commitment of the many past and present members of my group who have contributed to our work.”

Professor Roberto Maiolino FRS

Director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmology and Professor of Experimental Astrophysics, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

Maiolino studies the formation of galaxies using observations collected at some of the largest ground-based and space telescopes. He has obtained key results on the interplay between the evolution of galaxies and the supermassive black holes at their centres. He has also investigated the enrichment of chemical elements across the cosmic epochs, as well as the origin and nature of dust particles in the early Universe.

He said: “I am truly honoured by such a prestigious appointment. Being a Fellow of the Royal Society will certainly foster my research activities and will allow me to further promote exciting, cutting-edge projects.”

Professor Angelos Michaelides FRS

1968 Professor of Chemistry, Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

Michaelides’ work involves the development and application of theoretical methods to better understand contemporary problems in chemistry, physics, and materials science. His group places a particular focus on developing and applying computer simulation approaches that provide the fundamental molecular-level insight needed to help address contemporary global challenges related to water, energy, and the environment.

He said: “Holy moly! I’m delighted to have been elected an FRS and very grateful to all the outstanding students, post-docs, collaborators, and mentors I’ve had over the years without whom this would never have happened.”

Professor Jason William Chin FMedSci FRS

Head, Centre for Chemical and Synthetic Biology, and Joint Head, Division of Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology; Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge; Associate Faculty in Synthetic Genomics, Wellcome Sanger Institute

Chin has engineered the genetic code of living cells to synthesise modified proteins and non-canonical polymers. To accomplish this, he created new translational machinery and codons to reprogram the genetic code, going well-beyond prior work using amber suppression. He then completely synthesised a bacterial genome in which he reduced the number of sense codons in its genetic code. ̽��ֱ��codons thus unused were reassigned to encode non-canonical amino acids. Chin's fundamental advances have been widely used to drive discovery, including to define the molecular consequences of post-translational modifications, define protein interactions in cells, and provide mechanistic insight into enzymes.

̽��ֱ��nine Cambridge researchers were all selected for their exceptional contributions to science.

It is an honour to welcome so many outstanding researchers from around the world into the Fellowship of the Royal Society.

Sir Adrian Smith, President of the Royal Society

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

Female scientists lead Cambridge success in Royal Society awards 2021

ta385 — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 12:00:00 +0000

Bell Burnell is one of twelve former and current Cambridge researchers, including six women, to be recognised in 2021 for their exceptional research and outstanding contributions to science.

Dame Jocelyn has been honoured for her work on the discovery of pulsars in the 1960s while she was a postgraduate student at New Hall (now Murray Edwards College) carrying out research at Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory.

Past winners of the Copley Medal have included Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin. Dame Jocelyn said: “I am delighted to be the recipient of this year’s Copley Medal, a prize which has been awarded to so many incredible scientists.

“With many more women having successful careers in science, and gaining recognition for their transformational work, I hope there will be many more female Copley winners in the near future.

“My career has not fitted a conventional – male – pattern. Being the first person to identify pulsars would be the highlight of any career; but I have also swung sledgehammers and built radio telescopes; set up a successful group of my own studying binary stars; and was the first female president of the Institute of Physics and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

“I hope that my work and presence as a senior woman in science continues to encourage more women to pursue scientific careers”.

̽��ֱ��Copley Medal award includes a £25,000 gift which Dame Jocelyn will add to the Institute of Physics' Bell Burnell Graduate Scholarship Fund, which provides grants to graduate students from under-represented groups in physics.

Three female scientists currently working at Cambridge have been recognised in 2021. Professor Sadaf Farooqi from the MRC Metabolic Diseases Unit receives the Croonian Medal and Lecture, together with Sir Stephen O'Rahilly, for their seminal discoveries regarding the control of human body weight, resulting in novel diagnostics and therapies, which improve human health.

Dr Serena Nik-Zainal from the MRC Cancer Unit has been awarded the Francis Crick Medal and Lecture, for her contributions to understanding the aetiology of cancers by her analyses of mutation signatures in cancer genomes, which is now being applied to cancer therapy.

Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith from the Department of Genetics and currently the ̽��ֱ��’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research receives the Buchanan Medal, for her pioneering work in epigenetics, her interdisciplinary work on genomic imprinting, the interplay between the genome and epigenome, and how genetic and environmental influences affect development and human diseases.

Former Cavendish Laboratory Research Fellow, Professor Michelle Simmons, has won the Bakerian Medal and Lecture, for her seminal contributions to our understanding of nature at the atomic-scale by creating a sequence of world-first quantum electronic devices in which individual atoms control device behaviour.

Professor Frances Kirwan, alumna and Honorary Fellow of Clare College, received the Sylvester Medal, for her research on quotients in algebraic geometry, including links with symplectic geometry and topology, which has had many applications.

Other current Cambridge researchers honoured include Dr Sjors Scheres from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Scheres has been awarded the Leeuwenhoek Medal and Lecture for his ground-breaking contributions and innovations in image analysis and reconstruction methods in electron cryo-microscopy, enabling the structure determination of complex macromolecules of fundamental biological and medical importance to atomic resolution.

Emeritus Professor Michael Green from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics has been awarded Royal Medal A for crucial and influential contributions to the development of string theory over a long period, including the discovery of anomaly cancellation.

̽��ֱ��Royal Society’s President, Sir Adrian Smith, said: “Through its medals and awards the Royal Society recognises those researchers and science communicators who have played a critical part in expanding our understanding of the world around us.”

“From advancing vaccine development to catching the first glimpses of distant pulsars, these discoveries shape our societies, answer fundamental questions and open new avenues for exploration.”

Find the full list of 2021 Royal Society medal, award and prize winners here.

Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell has become only the second woman to be awarded the Royal Society’s prestigious Copley Medal, the world’s oldest scientific prize.

I hope there will be many more female Copley winners in the near future

Jocelyn Bell Burnell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_3zNw91MSY

Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Yes

̽��ֱ��Royal Society announces election of new Fellows 2020

jg533 — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 17:53:50 +0000

Fellows are chosen for their outstanding contributions to scientific understanding. ̽��ֱ��62 newly elected Fellows embody the global nature of science, and are elected for life through a peer review process based on excellence in science. Past Fellows and Foreign Members include Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Dorothy Hodgkin and Stephen Hawking.

̽��ֱ��Royal Society is a self-governing Fellowship made up of the most eminent scientists, engineers and technologists from the UK and the Commonwealth. Its Foreign Members are drawn from the rest of the world. ̽��ֱ��Society’s fundamental purpose is to recognise, promote and support excellence in science and to encourage the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity.

Sir Venki Ramakrishnan, President of the Royal Society, said: “At this time of global crisis, the importance of scientific thinking, and the medicines, technologies and insights it delivers, has never been clearer. Our Fellows and Foreign Members are central to the mission of the Royal Society, to use science for the benefit of humanity.

"While election to the Fellowship is a recognition of exceptional individual contributions to the sciences, it is also a network of expertise that can be drawn on to address issues of societal, and global significance. This year’s Fellows and Foreign Members have helped shape the 21st century through their work at the cutting-edge of fields from human genomics, to climate science and machine learning.

"It gives me great pleasure to celebrate these achievements, and those yet to come, and welcome them into the ranks of the Royal Society.”

̽��ֱ��Cambridge scientists announced today as Royal Society Fellows are:

Professor Kevin Brindle FMedSci, Department of Biochemistry and Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute. His current research is focused on novel imaging methods for detecting cancer progression and to monitor early tumour responses to treatment, with an emphasis on translating these techniques to the clinic.

Professor Vikram Deshpande, Department of Engineering, for his seminal contributions in microstructural mechanics. His works include developing ‘metallic wood’, sheets of nickel as strong as titanium, but four-times lighter thanks to their plant-like nanoscale pores.

Professor Marian Holness, Department of Earth Sciences. She has created a new approach to decoding rock history, and concentrates on understanding the evolution of bodies of magma trapped in the crust, which ultimately controls the eruptive behaviour of any overlying volcano.

Professor Giles Oldroyd, Russell R Geiger Professor of Crop Science, Crop Science Centre and Group Leader, Sainsbury Laboratory. He is leading an international research programme attempting to achieve more equitable and sustainable agriculture through the enhanced use of beneficial microbial associations.

Professor Hugh Osborn, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics for work in theoretical physics on quantum field theory and in particular conformal field theory.

Professor Didier Queloz, Cavendish Laboratory, for his part in the discovery of the first planet beyond our solar system, for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics last year. Hundreds more exoplanets have since been revealed by his pioneering observational techniques.

Dr Sarah Teichmann FMedSci, Director of Research, Cavendish Laboratory and Senior Research Fellow, Churchill College, for her contributions to computational biology and genomics, including her role in founding and leading the Human Cell Atlas international consortium to map all cell types in the human body.

Professor Stephen Young, Department of Engineering, for pioneering the statistical approach to language processing - namely, treating conversation as a reinforcement learning problem - that made the speech-recognition products in millions of homes a reality.

Professor Jack Thorne, Department of Pure Maths and Mathematical Statistics for multiple breakthroughs in diverse areas of algebraic number theory. At age 32, he becomes the youngest living member of the Fellowship.

In addition, Dr William Schafer at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, based at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, has been elected as a Fellow.

Nine Cambridge scientists are among the new Fellows announced today by the Royal Society.

At this time of global crisis, the importance of scientific thinking, and the medicines, technologies and insights it delivers, has never been clearer.

Venki Ramakrishnan

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̽��ֱ��Royal Society announces election of new Fellows 2019

ta385 — Wed, 17 Apr 2019 09:20:00 +0000

In total, fifty eminent scientists from the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth have been honoured, joining illustrious names such as Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein. Ten new Foreign Members have also been named.

̽��ֱ��Cambridge academics are:

Caucher Birkar

Professor of Mathematics in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics

Peter Haynes

Professor of Applied Mathematics, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics

Richard Jozsa

Leigh Trapnell Professor of Quantum Physics, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics

Venki Ramakrishnan, President of the Royal Society, says: “Over the course of the Royal Society’s vast history, it is our Fellowship that has remained a constant thread and the substance from which our purpose has been realised: to use science for the benefit of humanity.

“This year’s newly elected Fellows and Foreign Members of the Royal Society embody this, being drawn from diverse fields of enquiry—epidemiology, geometry, climatology—at once disparate, but also aligned in their pursuit and contributions of knowledge about the world in which we live, and it is with great honour that I welcome them as Fellows of the Royal Society.”

Dr Yusuf K Hamied, an alumnus of Christ's College and a generous donor to the ̽��ֱ��, has also been elected an Honorary Fellow.

New Fellows are formally admitted to the Society at the Admissions Day ceremony in July, when they sign the Charter Book and the Obligation of the Fellows of the Royal Society.

View the full list of new Fellows and Foreign Members.

Three Cambridge academics have been made Fellows of the Royal Society in recognition of their outstanding contributions to science.

It is with great honour that I welcome them as Fellows of the Royal Society

Venki Ramakrishnan, President of the Royal Society

Courtesy of ̽��ֱ��Royal Society

̽��ֱ��Royal Society, London.

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Cambridge scientists receive Royal Society awards

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 13:44:01 +0000

̽��ֱ��Royal Society, the UK’s independent academy for science, has announced the recipients of its 2015 Awards, Medals and Prize Lectures. ̽��ֱ��scientists receive the awards in recognition of their achievements in a wide variety of fields of research. ̽��ֱ��recipients from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge are:

Professor George Efstathiou FRS (Institute of Astronomy) receives the Hughes Medal for many outstanding contributions to our understanding of the early Universe, in particular his pioneering computer simulations, observations of galaxy clustering and studies of the fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background.

Professor Benjamin Simons (Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute, Cavendish Laboratory) receives the Gabor Medal for his work analysing stem cell lineages in development, tissue homeostasis and cancer, revolutionising our understanding of stem cell behaviour in vivo.

Professor Russell Cowburn FRS (Department of Physics) receives the Clifford Paterson Medal and Lecture for his remarkable academic, technical and commercial achievements in nano-magnetics.

Dr Madan Babu Mohan (MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology) receives the Francis Crick Medal and Lecture for his major and widespread contributions to computational biology.

View the full list of recipients.

Four Cambridge scientists have been recognised by the Royal Society for their achievements in research.

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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̽��ֱ��Royal Society announces election of new Fellows 2015

jeh98 — Thu, 07 May 2015 11:11:05 +0000

̽��ֱ��Royal Society is a self-governing Fellowship of many of the world’s most distinguished scientists drawn from all areas of science, engineering, and medicine. ̽��ֱ��Society’s fundamental purpose is to recognise, promote, and support excellence in science and to encourage the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity.

̽��ֱ��Fellows elected from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge are:

Professor Ali Alavi – Department of Chemistry

Professor Jane Clarke – Department of Chemistry

Professor Anthony Edwards – Gonville and Caius College

Professor Zoubin Ghahramani – Department of Engineering

Professor John Robertson – Department of Engineering

Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society, said: “Science and its application are at the core of so many aspects of our modern lives. From treating infectious diseases, to building safe bridges and tunnels, searching out life on other planets and even vacuuming our living rooms, science helps us understand ourselves better and it makes life better.

“Without scientific knowledge, we might not be able to solve some of the greatest challenges of our time: food shortages, climate change and tackling diseases.

“ ̽��ֱ��scientists elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society this year are leaders in their fields and have contributed much to the scientific endeavour. We are delighted to welcome them alongside the likes of great British scientists such as Newton, Boyle and Darwin.”

View the full list of new Fellows and Foreign Members.

̽��ֱ��Royal Society has announced the election of its new Fellows, including five Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� academics, who join an eminent list of scientists, engineers and technologists from the UK and the Commonwealth.

̽��ֱ��scientists elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society this year are leaders in their fields and have contributed much to the scientific endeavour

Paul Nurse, the Royal Society

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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