̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Julia Gog

New Cambridge-developed resources help students learn how maths can help tackle infectious diseases

sc604 — Mon, 19 Feb 2024 07:00:00 +0000

From measles and flu to SARS and COVID, mathematicians help us understand and predict the epidemics that can spread through our communities, and to help us look at strategies that we may be able to use to contain them.

̽��ֱ��project, called Contagious Maths, was led by Professor Julia Gog from Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP), and was supported by a Rosalind Franklin Award from the Royal Society.

̽��ֱ��curriculum-linked resources will give students between the ages 11 and 14 the opportunity to join researchers on the mathematical frontline to learn more about infectious disease spread, along with interactive tools to try mathematical modelling for themselves. Teachers receive full lesson plans, backed up by Cambridge research.

“I’ve always loved maths. I was lucky enough to have amazing teachers at sixth form who challenged me and were 100% behind me pursuing maths at the highest level, but maths as it’s taught in school can be highly abstract, so students often wonder what the point of maths even is,” said Gog, who is also Director of the Millennium Maths Project. “This is something I’m trying to help with now: to offer a glimpse from school to the research world to see the role mathematics can play in tackling important real-world problems.”

̽��ֱ��Contagious Maths project introduces mathematical modelling; explores how mathematicians can model the spread of disease through a population and the type of questions we might think about when looking at models; and gives an insight into what mathematics researchers working on these real-life problems actually do.

“I’ve been engaged in outreach for many years at Cambridge, and the Contagious Maths project grew out of discussions with colleagues who have expertise in reaching school-age children,” said Gog. “ ̽��ֱ��11-14 age group we are targeting is a real crunch point for retaining girls in maths, and future female mathematicians. What exactly happens is complex and multifaceted, but this is a period when people form their views on how they fit with maths and science.

“Many of them disengage, as it can seem that maths at school is utterly disconnected from the real world. It can also be a time when maths appears very starkly right or wrong, whereas any research mathematician can tell you it’s always so much more subtle than that, and therefore so much more interesting!”

Gog hopes the Contagious Maths resources might be able to help, as they are designed to be used in regular school lessons, and cover a topic with clear real-world importance.

“ ̽��ֱ��maths is never black and white in this field: there are always ways to challenge and develop the models, and some tricky thinking to be done about how the real epidemics and the simulations are really related to each other,” she said. “I suspect some students will find this frustrating, and just want maths to be algorithmic exercises. But some will be intrigued, and they are the ones we are trying to reach and expose to this larger world of applied maths research.”

Contagious Maths also provides teachers with all the ideas and tools they need, so they have at their fingertips all they need to deliver these lessons, even if they have no experience with research mathematics. “We hope this project will help these teachers to bring in the wider view of mathematics, and we hope it inspires them too,” said Gog. “It’s been really fun developing these resources, teaming up with both NRICH and Plus to make the most of our combined expertise.”

Maths teachers can attend a free online event on 20 March to learn more about the project.

In addition to the school resources, Gog and her colleagues have designed another version of Contagious Maths for a more general self-guided audience, which will work for students older than 14 or anyone, of any age, who is interested in learning about mathematical modelling.

“ ̽��ֱ��paradox between the cleanness and precision of mathematics, and the utter hot mess of anything that involves biological dynamics across populations – like an outbreak of an infectious disease, is what intrigued me to stay in mathematics beyond my degree, and to move into research in mathematical biology,” said Gog. “Elegant theoretical ideas can tell us something valuable and universal about mitigating the devastating effects of disease on human and animal populations. Super abstract equations can hold fundamental truths about real-world problems - I don't think I will ever tire of thinking about that.”

Adapted from a Royal Society interview with Professor Julia Gog.

Cambridge mathematicians have developed a set of resources for students and teachers that will help them understand how maths can help tackle infectious diseases.

Orbon Alija via Getty Images

Aerial view of crowd connected by lines

̽��ֱ��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.

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First A-level students arrive at new Cambridge Maths School

sb726 — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 08:39:03 +0000

̽��ֱ��Cambridge Maths School, created in collaboration with the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, has welcomed its first students at the start of the new academic year.

NRICH: nurturing next-generation problem solvers

ta385 — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 06:00:00 +0000

NRICH spent the last two years in emergency rescue mode, helping learners in lockdown. Its online resources attracted over a million page views per week. Now celebrating their 25th anniversary, the NRICH team is more determined than ever to nurture our next-generation problem solvers.

Cambridge scientists to take part in Royal Institution Christmas Lectures

cjb250 — Thu, 04 Nov 2021 14:34:12 +0000

Professors Julia Gog, Ravi Gupta and Sharon Peacock, each of whom have played a key role in the UK’s response to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, will lead the on-screen exploration into their area of scientific expertise, with two Guest Lecturers appearing in each episode.

Together, they will offer insights to the Christmas Lectures’ young audience into the world of viruses – how they arise and proliferate, and how we humans respond – from testing and modelling to vaccine development and infection control. They will reveal why discoveries and advances made during the on-going pandemic will have an impact far beyond COVID-19 and are set to change the future of medicine.

̽��ֱ��Guest Lecturers will support the 2021 Christmas Lecturer Jonathan Van-Tam to demonstrate that tackling pandemics is a collaborative and interdisciplinary scientific effort.

Professor Julia Gog OBE, is Professor of Mathematical Biology at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and the David N. Moore Fellow and Director of Studies in Mathematics at Queens' College, Cambridge. During the pandemic she has contributed to scientific advice to the UK government through SAGE and SPI-M, the group which provides input based on infectious disease modelling and epidemiology.

Professor Ravi Gupta, is Professor of Clinical Microbiology at the Cambridge Institute for Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease. Using his expertise in RNA virus genetics and biology, Ravi’s work during the pandemic has included reporting the first genotypic-phenotypic evidence for immune escape of SARS-CoV-2 within an individual, defining the process by which new variants are likely to arise, and defining the immune escape and transmissibility advantage of the Delta variant as the driver behind its global expansion.

Professor Sharon Peacock CBE, is Professor of Public Health and Microbiology in the Department of Medicine at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. During the pandemic Sharon has Chaired the COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium, delivering large-scale and rapid whole-genome virus sequencing to local NHS centres and the UK government, and helping to inform UK public health interventions and policies.

Also taking part as Guest Lecturers are:

Professor Katie Ewer, a cellular immunologist and Associate Professor at the Jenner Institute at the ̽��ֱ�� of Oxford.
Professor Teresa Lambe OBE, an Associate Professor based in the Oxford Vaccine Group at the ̽��ֱ�� of Oxford.
Professor Catherine Noakes OBE, Professor of Environmental Engineering for Buildings at the ̽��ֱ�� of Leeds.

Lucinda Hunt, Director of the Royal Institution, said: “We are delighted that Jonathan will be joined by such an exciting and expert group of scientists during this year’s series of three Christmas Lectures.

“They will work together to take us on a journey through the world of viruses – how they arise, how they proliferate, and how science and society responds – just as they are doing in tackling the current pandemic. What a strong and positive message that will be for our young audience, about the power of collaborative science.”

Patrick Holland, BBC Director, Factual, Arts and Classical Music Television, said: “Scientists across the world have responded to the Covid crisis with expertise and ingenuity that is humbling for us all. It is no exaggeration to say that the path of history has been changed because of the work of vaccine scientists and epidemiologists.

“Jonathan and his team will give us another exciting and thought-provoking series of Lectures, covering so much more than COVID-19. This will be a celebration of science and of the scientists whose advances are shaping our world.”

In the 2021 Christmas Lectures, ‘Going viral: How Covid changed science forever’, epidemiologist and one of England’s two Deputy Chief Medical Officers, Jonathan Van-Tam, will take a deep dive into many and varied viruses, including COVID-19, and reveal why discoveries and advances made during the on-going pandemic – from early detection techniques to new vaccines – mean biological science will never be the same again.

̽��ֱ��2021 Christmas Lectures will be broadcast on BBC Four and iPlayer between Christmas and New Year.

̽��ֱ��2021 Christmas Lectures are co-produced by the Ri and Windfall Films for BBC Four and iPlayer. They were commissioned by Patrick Holland, Director, Factual, Arts and Classical Music Television and Jack Bootle, Head of Commissioning, Science and Natural History. ̽��ֱ��Commissioning Editor for the BBC is Tom Coveney. The Series Producer is Henry Fraser and the Executive Producer is David Dugan.

Adapted from a press release by the Royal Institution

Three Cambridge researchers are among six leading UK scientists who will share the presenting duties with Professor Jonathan Van-Tam during this year’s Christmas Lectures from the Royal Institution.

Royal Institution

Audience at Royal Institution Christmas Lecture

̽��ֱ��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.

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Flu season 2021: how worried should we be?

jg533 — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 15:18:55 +0000

Are we in for a bad flu season this winter? Cambridge experts who have been studying flu for decades consider the scenarios that may lie ahead.

New national modelling group to provide faster, more rigorous COVID-19 predictions

sc604 — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 16:47:30 +0000

̽��ֱ��JUNIPER consortium (‘Joint UNIversities Pandemic and Epidemiological Research’) brings together leading mathematical and statistical modellers from seven UK universities and has received £3 million in funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

JUNIPER is developing and using customised models to provide predictions and estimates on key questions about the COVID-19 pandemic. These results feed regularly into SPI-M, the modelling group that provides evidence to the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and the wider UK government.

Examples of modelling JUNIPER provides to government includes:

Understanding how new variants are spreading across the UK and developing statistical models to determine whether new variants are causing more hospitalisations or deaths.
Forecasting and providing real-time estimates of the R-value, using data from sources such as Pillar 1 and 2 testing, hospital data and mobility data. They are currently providing eight of 12 models contributing real-time R estimates that go from SPI-M to SAGE each week.
Modelling the effectiveness of different testing strategies on virus transmission and suppression, and modelling the effect of vaccinations and predicting outcomes from different scenarios of how to ease lockdown restrictions.

Professor Julia Gog, co-lead of the consortium from Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, said: “By bringing research groups together from our seven universities we can provide predictions and estimates about the pandemic to address questions from the government with unprecedented speed. By combining the right expertise together swiftly across research teams we can now respond to questions in less than 24 hours, which might have taken a week for one team working alone. And further, being able to call upon specialist expertise combinations across multiple research groups means we can provide more robust outputs.

“In this unprecedented pandemic, modelling has been hugely important to provide evidence-based predictions and estimates at great speed. Our insights from transmission modelling are fully integrated with scientific evidence from other disciplines and feed into government decision-making.”

Professor Matt Keeling, co-lead of the consortium from the ̽��ֱ�� of Warwick, said: “We’re generating about half the models for the nowcasting that goes into SPI-M and SAGE every week. This consortium allows us to not only boost our speed and capacity, but also to continue to advance the accuracy of our models using the new data and growing knowledge from the pandemic.

“Standard epidemiological modelling tools have worked well so far, but the future with COVID-19 now demands a suite of new tools to deal with the upcoming complexities of the pandemic, such as localised regional outbreaks, growing understanding of socioeconomic differences with this disease, complexities of imperfect vaccines and the growing problem ahead with new variants. Having several teams using different models working on the same problem helps us to verify our results and makes the consortium much bigger than the sum of its parts.”

̽��ֱ��consortium is funded as part of UKRI’s COVID-19 Agile Call, which has so far invested more than £150M in over 400 projects to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Professor Charlotte Deane, COVID-19 Response Director at UKRI, said: “This consortium enables disease modellers to pool their expertise nationally to increase the scale, speed and quality of their models of policy options and predictions for the pandemic. They’ll provide cutting-edge evidence about the pandemic into the UK government’s decision-making.”

̽��ֱ��consortium will also proactively generate new model-based predictions and develop the necessary methodology as part of a horizon-scanning process.

̽��ֱ��consortium plan to make their models open-source, so scientists worldwide can access them and benefit.

̽��ֱ��seven universities involved in JUNIPER are Cambridge, Warwick, Exeter, Oxford, Bristol, Manchester and Lancaster Universities.

They will work closely with other organisations and research teams active on COVID-19 research including the Alan Turing Institute, the Royal Statistical Society, Health Data Research UK, Public Health England, the Royal Society’s ‘RAMP’ initiative, and the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences.

A new national consortium, co-led by the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, will bring together mathematical modellers to produce faster, more rigorous predictions for the COVID-19 pandemic and advise UK government bodies.

Gordon Johnson from Pixabay

Connections

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Cambridge academics recognised in Queen’s Birthday Honours

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 23:22:25 +0000

̽��ֱ��Honours were originally meant to be announced in June, but were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following approval from Her Majesty the Queen, hundreds of additional people were added to the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours list for their contributions tackling the virus on the frontline and in their communities.

Professor Julia Gog from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics is one of the many individuals recognised for their work on the COVID-19 pandemic. Professor Gog, who is a Fellow of Queens’ College, has been made OBE for services to academia and the COVID-19 response.

In 2018, Julia and her team were behind the UK’s largest citizen science experiment in collaboration with the BBC, using location data from mobile phones to map how pandemic influenza might spread across the UK. ̽��ֱ��massive dataset that resulted from the experiment, the largest and most detailed of its kind, has been used in the response to COVID-19.

Since the start of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, Julia has provided expert advice on infectious disease modelling and COVID-19 to SAGE and its sub-groups - particularly SPI-M-O and the Children’s Task and Finish working group (TFC).

As the lead modelling representative and co-deputy chair of the SAGE’s TFC, Julia has shaped and co-ordinated the modelling advice on options for re-opening schools, a key government priority. Her input has been pivotal to the development of DfE’s response and in developing principles for future interventions.

Through her role on the steering committee of the Royal Society’s Rapid Assistance in Modelling the Pandemic (RAMP) initiative and involvement with other groups (such as the Isaac Newton Institute and Virtual Forum for Knowledge Exchange in Mathematical Sciences), Julia has established working relationships between SAGE and the wider scientific community.

She said: “It’s hugely rewarding to see so many scientists recognised in this way. While I am of course thankful for this personal honour, science is a team pursuit, and I am grateful to so many colleagues for their work and support particularly during this year. While there are still many challenges ahead, we will continue to do all we can to help bring this pandemic to an end.”

Dr Giles Yeo, Principal Research Associate at the Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science, has been made MBE for services to research and communication and engagement.

Dr Yeo, a Fellow of Wolfson College, is a geneticist interested in studying the brain's control of food intake and body weight, and how these might be dysregulated in obesity. He is from San Francisco, receiving his bachelor’s degree in Molecular and Cell Biology from the ̽��ֱ�� of California, Berkeley. He came to Cambridge in 1994 for his PhD studies. In 1998 he began his postdoctoral training with Professor Sir Stephen O’Rahilly in the Department of Clinical Biochemistry, working on the genetics of severe human obesity.

Giles was the first to report that mutations in the melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) and in the neurotrophic receptor TRKB resulted in severe human obesity. In 2007, he became Scientific Director of the core Genomics/Transcriptomics facilities and a group leader at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Metabolic Research Labs. He is also a former President of the British Society for Neuroendocrinology.

He said: “I can assure you that this was entirely unexpected. Because it was in times of COVID, the notification, instead of being on expensive official stationery, came via email, and I initially thought it was a phishing scam! Anyway, it wasn’t, and I’m deeply honoured to be recognised for my contributions to communicating and engagement in research. I am grateful to be working at an Institution which has allowed me to breathe and to follow my passion.”

Professor Sarah Worthington, from the Faculty of Law and Trinity College, is made DBE for services to English Private Law. She is one of the most prolific, original and influential academics working in the broad field of private law. Since 2011 she has been Downing Professor of the Laws of England at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, and is currently also a Deputy Vice Chancellor of the ̽��ֱ��; in 2012 she helped found, and is Director of, the Cambridge Private Law Centre, which promotes informed debate across all branches of private law including obligations, property, family and private international law.

She said: “I feel surprised, delighted and overwhelmed by the honour. It’s wonderful to see legal research recognised in this way, especially research in private law. But research endeavours are never solo projects. I’ve been immensely fortunate to have met and worked with a lot of very warm and clever people who have helped me in all sorts of ways. Thank you to all of them, as I continue to learn from their example.”

Professor Stefan Reif, Fellow of St John’s College and Founder of the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, has been made OBE for services to Scholarship. Under his directorship, the Cambridge Genizah Collection was transformed from an overlooked, under-used and only partially available resource to a major literary treasure that is now widely exploited by scholars, and that has revolutionised the understanding of medieval Jewish life. He has contributed significantly to international developments in the historical study of Jewish liturgy, especially clarifying the evolution of Jewish prayer texts in the eastern Mediterranean in Crusader times.

Mark Enzer, CTO at Mott MacDonald and Digital Director at the Centre for Digital Built Britain (CDBB), is made OBE for services to the National Infrastructure. Mark is a keen champion of innovation in the context of collaborative delivery models and he is particularly interested in transformational change in the infrastructure industry. As Mott MacDonald’s Chief Technical Officer, he is accountable to the Executive Board for technical excellence across the Group. As the Chair of CDBB’s Digital Framework Task Group, Mark is contributing to the leadership of the National Digital Twin Programme.

Researchers from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge have been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, which were announced on Saturday.

Photo of Julia Gog: Lionel D'Souza

L: Julia Gog R: Giles Yeo

Yes

Nine Cambridge researchers among this year’s Royal Society medal and award winners

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 05:00:00 +0000

He is one of the 25 Royal Society medals and awards winners announced today, nine of whom are researchers at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. ̽��ֱ��annual prizes celebrate exceptional researchers and outstanding contributions to science across a wide array of fields.

President of the Royal Society, Venki Ramakrishnan, said:

" ̽��ֱ��Royal Society’s medals and awards celebrate those researchers whose ground-breaking work has helped answer fundamental questions and advance our understanding of the world around us. They also champion those who have reinforced science’s place in society, whether through inspiring public engagement, improving our education system, or by making STEM careers more inclusive and rewarding.

"This year has highlighted how integral science is in our daily lives, and tackling the challenges we face, and it gives me great pleasure to congratulate all our winners and thank them for their work."

Sir Alan Fersht FMedSci FRS, Emeritus Professor in the Department of Chemistry and former Master of Gonville and Caius College, is awarded the Copley Medal for the development and application of methods to describe protein folding pathways at atomic resolution, revolutionising our understanding of these processes.

"Most of us who become scientists do so because science is one of the most rewarding and satisfying of careers and we actually get paid for doing what we enjoy and for our benefitting humankind. Recognition of one’s work, especially at home, is icing on the cake," said Sir Alan. "Like many Copley medallists, I hail from a humble immigrant background and the first of my family to go to university. If people like me are seen to be honoured for science, then I hope it will encourage young people in similar situations to take up science."

As the latest recipient of the Royal Society’s premier award, Sir Alan joins an elite group of scientists, that includes Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and Dorothy Hodgkin, and more recently Professor John Goodenough (2020) for his research on the rechargeable lithium battery, Peter Higgs (2015), the physicist who hypothesised the existence of the Higgs Boson, and DNA fingerprinting pioneer Alec Jeffreys (2014).

Professor Barry Everitt FMedSci FRS, from the Department of Psychology and former Master of Downing College, receives the Croonian Medal and Lecture for research which has elucidated brain mechanisms of motivation and applied them to important societal issues such as drug addiction.

Professor Everitt said: "In addition to my personal pride about having received this prestigious award, I hope that it helps draw attention to experimental addiction research, its importance and potential."

Professor Herbert Huppert FRS of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, and a Fellow of King’s College, receives a Royal Medal for outstanding achievements in the physical sciences. He has been at the forefront of research in fluid mechanics. As an applied mathematician he has consistently developed highly original analysis of key natural and industrial processes. Further to his research, he has chaired policy work on how science can help defend against terrorism, and carbon capture and storage in Europe.

In addition to the work for which they are recognised with an award, several of this year’s recipients have also been working on issues relating to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Professor Julia Gog of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and a Fellow of Queens’ College, receives the Rosalind Franklin Award and Lecture for her achievements in the field of mathematics. Her expertise in infectious diseases and virus modelling has seen her contribute to the pandemic response, including as a participant at SAGE meetings. ̽��ֱ��STEM project component of her award will produce resources for Key Stage 3 (ages 11-14) maths pupils and teachers exploring the curriculum in the context of modelling epidemics and infectious diseases and showing how maths can change the world for the better.

̽��ֱ��Society’s Michael Faraday Prize is awarded to Sir David Spiegelhalter OBE FRS, of the Winton Centre for Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication and a Fellow of Churchill College, for bringing key insights from the disciplines of statistics and probability vividly home to the public at large, and to key decision-makers, in entertaining and accessible ways, most recently through the COVID-19 pandemic.

̽��ֱ��full list of Cambridge’s 2020 winners and their award citations:

Copley Medal
Alan Fersht FMedSci FRS, Department of Chemistry, and Gonville and Caius College
He has developed and applied the methods of protein engineering to provide descriptions of protein folding pathways at atomic resolution, revolutionising our understanding of these processes.

Croonian Medal and Lecture
Professor Barry Everitt FMedSci FRS, Department of Psychology and Downing College
He has elucidated brain mechanisms of motivation and applied them to important societal issues such as drug addiction.

Royal Medal A
Professor Herbert Huppert FRS, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, and King’s College
He has been at the forefront of research in fluid mechanics. As an applied mathematician he has consistently developed highly original analysis of key natural and industrial processes.

Hughes Medal
Professor Clare Grey FRS, Department of Chemistry and Pembroke College
For her pioneering work on the development and application of new characterization methodology to develop fundamental insight into how batteries, supercapacitors and fuel cells operate.

Ferrier Medal and Lecture
Professor Daniel Wolpert FMedSci FRS, Department of Engineering and Trinity College
For ground-breaking contributions to our understanding of how the brain controls movement. Using theoretical and experimental approaches he has elucidated the computational principles underlying skilled motor behaviour.

Michael Faraday Prize and Lecture
Sir David Spiegelhalter OBE FRS, Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication and Churchill College
For bringing key insights from the disciplines of statistics and probability vividly home to the public at large, and to key decision-makers, in entertaining and accessible ways, most recently through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Milner Award and Lecture
Professor Zoubin Ghahramani FRS, Department of Engineering and St John’s College
For his fundamental contributions to probabilistic machine learning.

Rosalind Franklin Award and Lecture
Professor Julia Gog, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, and Queens’ College
For her achievements in the field of mathematics and her impactful project proposal with its potential for a long-term legacy.

Royal Society Mullard Award
Professor Stephen Jackson FMedSci FRS, Gurdon Institute, Department of Biochemistry
For pioneering research on DNA repair mechanisms and synthetic lethality that led to the discovery of olaparib, which has reached blockbuster status for the treatment of ovarian and breast cancers.

̽��ֱ��full list of medals and awards, including their description and past winners can be found on the Royal Society website: https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/awards/

Adapted from a Royal Society press release.

A leading pioneer in the field of protein engineering, Sir Alan Fersht FMedSci FRS, has been named as the 2020 winner of the world’s oldest scientific prize, the Royal Society’s prestigious Copley Medal.

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