The

Royal Society of London The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

Michael Faraday Prize is awarded for "excellence in communicating science to UK audiences". Named after

Michael Faraday Michael Faraday (; 22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867) was an English scientist who contributed to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic inducti ...

, the medal itself is made of silver gilt, and is accompanied by a purse of £2500.

Background

The prize was first awarded in 1986 to Charles Taylor for "his outstanding presentations of physics and applications of physics, aimed at audiences from six-year-old primary school children to adults". It is awarded annually and unlike other Royal Society awards such as the

Hughes Medal The Hughes Medal is awarded by the Royal Society of London "in recognition of an original discovery in the physical sciences, particularly electricity and magnetism or their applications". Named after David E. Hughes, the medal is awarded with ...

, it has been presented every year since its inception. The winner is required to present a lecture as part of the Society's annual programme of public events, which is usually held in January of the following year; during the lecture, the President of the Royal Society awards the medal. Unlike other prizes awarded by the society, the committee has not always publicly provided a rationale. This has occurred five times—in 2004 to

Martin Rees Martin John Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: (born 23 June 1942) is a British cosmologist and astrophysicist. He is the fifteenth Astronomer Royal, ...

, in 2006 to

Richard Fortey Richard Alan Fortey FRS FRSL (born 15 February 1946 in London) is a British palaeontologist, natural historian, writer and television presenter, who served as president of the Geological Society of London for its bicentennial year of 2007. Ea ...

, in 2007 to

Jim Al-Khalili Jameel Sadik "Jim" Al-Khalili ( ar, جميل صادق الخليلي; born 20 September 1962) is an Iraqi-British theoretical physicist, author and broadcaster. He is professor of theoretical physics and chair in the public engagement in scien ...

, in 2008 to

John D. Barrow John David Barrow (29 November 1952 – 26 September 2020) was an English cosmologist, theoretical physicist, and mathematician. He served as Gresham Professor of Geometry at Gresham College from 2008 to 2011. Barrow was also a writer of pop ...

and most recently in 2009 to

Marcus du Sautoy Marcus Peter Francis du Sautoy (; born 26 August 1965) is a British mathematician, Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford, Fellow of New College, Oxford and author of popular mathematics and popu ...

List of recipients

References

;General * ;Specific {{Featured list Awards established in 1986 Awards of the Royal Society Michael Faraday Royal Society lecture series Science communication awards Science education in the United Kingdom Science writing awards