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/ Medals and awards

Royal Medals

These medals are awarded for the most important contributions in the physical, biological and applied sciences.

  • Opening date

  • Closing date

  • Winners announcement

The award

The three Royal Medals, also known as the King’s Medals, are awarded annually by the Sovereign on the recommendation of the Council of the Society. Two Royal medals are awarded for the most important contributions to the advancement of Natural Knowledge in the physical and biological sciences respectively. A third Royal medal is awarded for distinguished contributions in the applied sciences.

The Royal Medals were founded by HM King George IV in 1825. Between 1826 and 1964 two medals were awarded each year. In 1965 the third medal, covering the applied sciences, was introduced on behalf of HM Queen Elizabeth II.

Frederick Sanger FRS, Max Perutz FRS and Francis Crick FRS are among those who have been awarded a Royal Medal.

Eligibility

The Royal Medals are open to UK/Commonwealth/Republic of Ireland citizens or those who have been residents for three or more years. They are restricted to senior scientists and nominations will remain valid and shall be considered by the award selection committee throughout three nomination cycles. Teams or groups may now be nominated for these awards.

Nominations are closed

Nominations are closed and will reopen on 30 November 2026.

2026 winners

  • Professor Fiona Wood AO

    Professor Fiona Wood AO

    Professor Fiona Wood AO is awarded the Royal Medal 2026 for her pioneering work resulting in the invention of spray-on-skin, an innovation that has transformed the lives of burns patients globally.
  • Professor Lewis E Kay FRS

    Professor Lewis E Kay FRS

    Professor Lewis E Kay FRS is awarded the Royal Medal 2026 for his remarkable contribution to understand and quantify protein dynamics and their relevance to protein function.
  • Professor John Adrian Pyle CBE FRS

    Professor John Adrian Pyle CBE FRS

    Professor John Adrian Pyle CBE FRS is awarded the Royal Medal 2026 for his foundational and policy-relevant contributions to the understanding of stratospheric and tropospheric ozone via major advances in the numerical modelling of the atmosphere, his insightful interpretation of atmospheric measurements and his leadership of major field campaigns.

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Past winners

  • Professor Anthony Davis
    Awarded in 2025

    Professor Anthony Davis

    For inventing a glucose-binding molecule with exceptional capabilities and working towards applications via start-up companies Ziylo and Carbometrics. Professor Anthony Davis would like to thank Dr Harry Destecroix, Dr Rob Tromans and Dr Andy Chapman for their contributions to this work.
  • Professor Susanne von Caemmerer FAA ML FRS and Professor Graham Douglas Farquhar AO FAA FRS
    Awarded in 2025

    Professor Susanne von Caemmerer FAA ML FRS and Professor Graham Douglas Farquhar AO FAA FRS

    For refining the ways we monitor and model photosynthesis in leaves from molecular to global scales.
  • Professor Matthew Rosseinsky OBE FRS
    Awarded in 2025

    Professor Matthew Rosseinsky OBE FRS

    For pioneering contributions to the design and discovery of materials, changing our understanding of synthesis to create function with digital tools.
  • Professor Marc Feldmann FRS and Professor Ravinder Maini FRS
    Awarded in 2024

    Professor Sir Ravinder Maini FMedSci FRS and Professor Sir Marc Feldmann AC FMedSci FRS

    Professor Sir Ravinder Maini FMedSci FRS and Professor Sir Marc Feldmann AC FMedSci FRS are awarded the Royal Medal 2024 for inventing anti-TNF therapy to treat rheumatoid arthritis, bringing their therapeutic from bench to bedside in one of the biggest success stories in modern medicine, and laying the groundwork for biologics to improve the quality of life for millions of people.
  • Sir Michael Stratton - Onur Pinar / Wellcome Sanger Institute
    Awarded in 2024

    Sir Michael Stratton FMedSci FRS

    For his foundational contributions to cancer genomics, the discovery of cancer genes and the identification of mutational signatures, which have transformed our understanding of cancer and somatic mutation. Picture credit: Onur Pinar; Wellcome Sanger Institute
  • Professor Tejinder Virdee FRS
    Awarded in 2024

    Sir Tejinder Virdee FRS

    For extraordinary leadership and profound impact on all phases of the monumental CMS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, including the crucial discovery of the Higgs boson through its decays to two photons.
  • Antony Hoare
    Awarded in 2023

    Sir Antony Hoare FREng FRS

    For groundbreaking contributions that have revolutionised the computer programming field, the development of "Hoare logic" that has paved the way for provably correct code, providing a robust framework for ensuring software reliability.
  • Herman Waldmann
    Awarded in 2023

    Professor Herman Waldmann FMedSci FRS

    For pioneering monoclonal antibodies for human therapy.
  • Patrick Vallance and Christopher Whitty
    Awarded in 2023

    Sir Patrick Vallance KCB FMedSci FRS and Sir Christopher Whitty KCB FRS

    For their pivotal role in ensuring that the UK鈥檚 response to the covid-19 pandemic has benefitted from the very best science and evidence.
  • Richard Ellis
    Awarded in 2022

    Professor Richard Ellis CBE FRS

    For motivating numerous advances in telescopes and instrumentation, and exploited these facilities to revolutionise the understanding of cosmological evolution.
  • Stephen West
    Awarded in 2022

    Dr Stephen West FMedSci FRS

    For discovering and determining the function of the key enzymes that are essential for recombination, repair and the maintenance of genomes.
  • Geoffrey Hinton
    Awarded in 2022

    Professor Geoffrey Hinton CC FRS

    For pioneering work on algorithms that learn distributed representations in artificial neural networks and their application to speech and vision, leading to a transformation of the international information technology industry.