The Copley Medal is an award given by the
Royal Society
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, r ...
, for "outstanding achievements in research in any branch of science". It alternates between the physical sciences or mathematics and the biological sciences.
Given every year, the medal is the oldest Royal Society medal awarded and the oldest surviving scientific award in the world, having first been given in 1731 to
Stephen Gray, for "his new Electrical Experiments: – as an encouragement to him for the readiness he has always shown in obliging the Society with his discoveries and improvements in this part of Natural Knowledge".
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History
The medal was created following a donation of
£100 to be used for carrying out experiments by
Sir Godfrey Copley, for which the interest on the amount was used for several years.
The conditions for the medal have been changed several times; in 1736, it was suggested that "a medal or other honorary prize should be bestowed on the person whose experiment should be best approved", and this remained the rule until 1831, when the conditions were changed so that the medal would be awarded to the researcher that the Royal Society Council decided most deserved it.
A second donation of £1666 13
s. 4
d. (400,000
old pence) was made by Sir Joseph William Copley in 1881, and the interest from that amount is used to pay for the medal.
The medal in its current format is made of
silver-gilt and awarded with a £25,000 prize.
Since its inception, it has been awarded to many distinguished scientists, including 52 winners of the Nobel Prize: 17 in
Physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which rel ...
, 21 in
Physiology or Medicine, and 14 in
Chemistry.
John Theophilus Desaguliers has won the medal the most often, winning three times, in 1734, 1736 and 1741. In 1976,
Dorothy Hodgkin became the first female recipient;
Jocelyn Bell Burnell, in 2021, is the second.
Medal recipients
See also
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List of biology awards
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List of chemistry awards
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List of geology awards
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List of mathematics awards
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List of physics awards
References
External links
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{{featured list
1731 establishments in Great Britain
1731 in science
Awards established in 1731
Awards of the Royal Society
Biology awards
Physics awards
Silver-gilt objects