Fellow of the Royal Society

Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematics, engineering science, and medical science".<ref name=elections/>

Overview

Template:Excessive examples Fellowship of the Society, the oldest known scientific academy in continuous existence, has been awarded to around 8,000 fellows.<ref name=allfrs/> These include eminent scientists Isaac Newton (1672),<ref name=allfrs/> Benjamin Franklin (1756), Charles Babbage (1816),<ref name=allfrs/> Michael Faraday (1824),<ref name=allfrs/> Charles Darwin (1839),<ref name=allfrs>Template:Cite web</ref> Ernest Rutherford (1903),<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Srinivasa Ramanujan (1918),<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Jagadish Chandra Bose (1920),<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Albert Einstein (1921),<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Paul Dirac (1930), Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1944),<ref name=subra>Template:Cite journal</ref> Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis (1945),<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Dorothy Hodgkin (1947),<ref name=dorothyfrs>Template:Cite journal</ref> Alan Turing (1951),<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Lise Meitner (1955),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Satyendra Nath Bose (1958),<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and Francis Crick (1959).<ref name=crickrsbm>Template:Cite journal</ref> Over 280 Nobel Laureates have been inducted since 1900. Template:As of, there are approximately 1,689 living Fellows, Foreign and Honorary Members, of whom 85 are Nobel Laureates.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Elected in 1672, Isaac Newton was one of the earliest fellows of the Royal Society.

Fellowship of the Royal Society has been described by The Guardian as "the equivalent of a lifetime achievement Oscar".<ref name=oscar>Template:Cite web</ref>

Fellowships

Stephen Hawking was elected a Fellow in 1974.<ref name="hawkingfrs">Template:Cite web</ref>

Up to 60 new Fellows (FRS), honorary (HonFRS) and foreign members (ForMemRS) are elected annually in late April or early May, from a pool of around 700 proposed candidates each year.<ref name=Keeler2011>Template:Cite journal</ref> New Fellows can only be nominated by existing Fellows for one of the fellowships described below:

Fellow

Bill Bryson, elected as an Honorary Member in 2013

Every year, up to 52 new fellows are elected from the United Kingdom, the rest of the Commonwealth of Nations, and Ireland, which make up around 90% of the society.<ref name=statutes>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=electionprocess>Template:Cite web</ref> Each candidate is considered on their merits and can be proposed from any sector of the scientific community. Fellows are elected for life on the basis of excellence in science and are entitled to use the post-nominal letters FRS.<ref name=elections>Template:Cite web</ref>

Foreign member

Jennifer Doudna, elected as a Foreign Member in 2016

Every year, fellows elect up to ten new foreign members. Like fellows, foreign members are elected for life through peer review on the basis of excellence in science. Template:As of, there are around 165 foreign members, who are entitled to use the post-nominal ForMemRS.<ref name=GulyasSomogyi2012>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Honorary fellow

Ramanujan was elected a Fellow in 1918.

Honorary Fellowship is an honorary academic title awarded to candidates who have given distinguished service to the cause of science, but do not have the kind of scientific achievements required of Fellows or Foreign Members. Honorary Fellows include the World Health Organization's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (2022), Bill Bryson (2013), Melvyn Bragg (2010), Robin Saxby (2015), David Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury of Turville (2008), Onora O'Neill (2007), John Maddox (2000),<ref name="maddox">Template:Cite journal</ref> Patrick Moore (2001) and Lisa Jardine (2015).<ref name="jarsbm">Template:Cite journal</ref> Honorary Fellows are entitled to use the post nominal letters HonFRS.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Former statute 12 fellowships

David Attenborough was elected a Fellow in 1983, under former statute 12.

Statute 12 is a legacy mechanism for electing members before official honorary membership existed in 1997.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Fellows elected under statute 12 include David Attenborough (1983) and John Palmer, 4th Earl of Selborne (1991).

Royal Fellow

The Council of the Royal Society can recommend members of the British royal family for election as Royal Fellow of the Royal Society. Template:As of there are four royal fellows:

1. Charles III, elected 1978<ref name=frscharles>Template:Cite web</ref>
2. Anne, Princess Royal, elected 1987<ref name=frsanne>Template:Cite web</ref>
3. Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, elected 1990<ref name=frsedwards>Template:Cite web</ref>
4. William, Prince of Wales, elected 2009<ref name=frswilliam>Template:Cite web</ref>

Elizabeth II was not a Royal Fellow, but provided her patronage to the society, as all reigning British monarchs have done since Charles II of England. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1951) was elected under statute 12, not as a Royal Fellow.<ref name=frsphillip>Template:Cite web</ref>

Election of new fellows

The election of new fellows is announced annually in May, after their nomination and a period of peer-reviewed selection.<ref name=elections/>

Nomination

Each candidate for Fellowship or Foreign Membership is nominated by two Fellows of the Royal Society (a proposer and a seconder), who sign a certificate of proposal.<ref name=occamten>Template:Cite web</ref> Previously, nominations required at least five fellows to support each nomination by the proposer,<ref name=occamten/> which was criticised for supposedly establishing an old boy network and elitist gentlemen's club.<ref name=gender>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=cronysim>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=notenoughwomen>Template:Cite web</ref> The certificate of election (see for example<ref name=geimfrs>Template:Cite web</ref>) includes a statement of the principal grounds on which the proposal is being made. There is no limit on the number of nominations made each year. In 2015, there were 654 candidates for election as Fellows and 106 candidates for Foreign Membership.<ref name=elections/>

Selection

The Council of the Royal Society oversees the selection process and appoints 10 subject area committees, known as Sectional Committees, to recommend the strongest candidates for election to the Fellowship. The final list of up to 52 Fellowship candidates and up to 10 Foreign Membership candidates is confirmed by the Council in April, and a secret ballot of Fellows is held at a meeting in May. A candidate is elected if they secure two-thirds of votes of those Fellows voting.

An indicative allocation of 18 Fellowships can be allocated to candidates from Physical Sciences and Biological Sciences; and up to 10 from Applied Sciences, Human Sciences and Joint Physical and Biological Sciences. A further maximum of six can be 'Honorary', 'General' or 'Royal' Fellows. Nominations for Fellowship are peer reviewed by Sectional Committees, each with at least 12 members and a Chair (all of whom are Fellows of the Royal Society). Members of the 10 Sectional Committees change every three years to mitigate in-group bias. Each Sectional Committee covers different specialist areas including:

1. Computer science
2. Mathematics
3. Astronomy and physics
4. Chemistry
5. Engineering
6. Earth science and environmental science
7. Molecules of Life<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
8. Cell biology
9. Multicellular organisms
10. Patterns in Populations<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Admission

New Fellows are admitted to the Society at a formal admissions day ceremony held annually in July,<ref name=admissions>Template:Cite web</ref> when they sign the Charter Book and the Obligation which reads: "We who have hereunto subscribed, do hereby promise, that we will endeavour to promote the good of the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, and to pursue the ends for which the same was founded; that we will carry out, as far as we are able, those actions requested of us in the name of the Council; and that we will observe the Statutes and Standing Orders of the said Society. Provided that, whensoever any of us shall signify to the President under our hands, that we desire to withdraw from the Society, we shall be free from this Obligation for the future".<ref name=elections/>

Since 2014, portraits of Fellows at the admissions ceremony have been published without copyright restrictions in Wikimedia Commons under a more permissive Creative Commons license which allows wider re-use.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=wikimediablog>Template:Cite web</ref>

Research fellowships and other awards

Brian Cox, a professor of physics, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2016 having previously held a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (URF) from 2005 to 2013.<ref name=amazin>Template:Cite web</ref>

In addition to the main fellowships of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS & HonFRS), other fellowships are available which are applied for by individuals, rather than through election. These fellowships are research grant awards and holders are known as Royal Society Research Fellows.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

• University research fellowships (URFs): Royal Society University Research Fellowships are for outstanding scientists in the UK who are in the early stages of their research career and have the potential to become leaders in their field.<ref name=urf>Template:Cite web</ref> Previous holders of URFs to have been elected FRS at a later date include Richard Borcherds (1994), Jean Beggs (1998), Frances Ashcroft (1999), Athene Donald (1999) and John Pethica (1999).<ref name=urfs>Template:Cite journal</ref> More recent awardees include Terri Attwood, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Brian Cox, Sarah Bridle, Shahn Majid, Tanya Monro, Beth Shapiro, David J. Wales and Katherine Willis.
• Royal Society Leverhulme Trust senior research fellowships are for scientists who would benefit from a period of full-time research without teaching and administrative duties, supported by the Leverhulme Trust.<ref name=leverhulme>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Newton advanced fellowships provide established international researchers with an opportunity to develop the research strengths and capabilities of their research group. These are provided by the Newton Fund as part of the UK's official development assistance.<ref name=newtonfund>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Industry fellowships are for academic scientists who want to work on a collaborative project with industry, and for scientists in industry who want to work on a collaborative project with an academic organisation.<ref name=industry>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Dorothy Hodgkin fellowships are for outstanding scientists in the UK at an early stage of their research career who require a flexible working pattern due to personal circumstances. These fellowships are named after Dorothy Hodgkin.<ref name=dorothy>Template:Cite web</ref>

In addition to the award of Fellowship (FRS, HonFRS & ForMemRS) and the Research Fellowships described above, several other awards, lectures and medals of the Royal Society are also given.

See also

• Royal Society
• Royal Fellow of the Royal Society

External links

• Database of current fellows
• Database of past fellows