Recognising and rewarding excellence
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| Dr Catherine Cesarsksy
ForMemRS of the
2005 intake
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Each year we award Royal Society Fellowships to 44 of the best
scientists in recognition of their scientific achievements. It is the
highest accolade a scientist can have, short of a Nobel prize.
Fellows
of the Royal Society include Colin Pillinger, who led the British
Exploration of Mars with Beagle 2, Stephen Hawking who works on the
basic laws that govern our universe, leading neuroscientist Dame Nancy
Rothwell and astronomer Jocelyn Bell-Burnell who, as a student,
discovered pulsars.
We also award 12 medals, 8 prizes and 7
prize lectureships, to honour excellence in a range of fields of
science, engineering and technology.
Funding future excellence
We are also investing in future excellence by funding more than 1600
young scientists every year to develop new thinking in areas such as
robotics, the AIDS crisis in Africa and sources of renewable fuels.
Not only will this help improve the quality of all our lives, but it
enables young scientists to develop the skills, experience and ideas to
become the FRS and Nobel prize winners of the future.
Sharing and debating science
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| A Royal Society
discussion meeting
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As developments in science have an increasing impact on our daily
lives, it is becoming even more important that we all understand and
have the chance to discuss these innovations.
The
Royal Society has an important role to play in this and we organise a
programme of activities to encourage non-scientists to get involved
with science - whether it's through reading one of our Science Briefs,
finding out more about cutting edge research at our annual Summer
Science Exhibition or through discussing and influencing policy on
issues such as genetic testing or cyber-trust in one of the Forums that
are held as part of our Science and Society programme.
Educating tomorrow's scientists
The
Royal Society is keen to support scientists of the future and we
recognise that this begins in the classroom. Our education programme
aims to influence science policy and curriculum development and to
support science teachers in delivering these important lessons.
Science and government
As
the UK's leading independent science organisation, the Royal Society is
able to provide advice to government on all aspects of science. Issues
that we have recently advised upon include nanotechnology and GM plants.
We
are also dedicated to ensuring that UK science plays a full role and is
at the leading edge of international research. The Royal Society funds
three major international research projects and helps UK scientists to
take part in international conferences and collaborations.
MP - scientist pairing scheme
The
MP pairing scheme aims to improve science policymaking in the UK by
giving members of the UK parliament and scientists the chance to find
out more about each others work and the demands they face, exploring
ways in which they can work together to improve links in the future.
History of science
The
Royal Society has a huge archive of science history material dating
back to 1660. The archive includes material from historically
significant events such as the early experiments to demonstrate
Newton's Law of Gravity and Harvey's theories of circulation, as well
as the drawings that Charles Darwin produced while he was developing
the theory of evolution.