The Davy Medal is awarded by 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 ...
"for an outstandingly important recent discovery in any branch of chemistry".
Named after
Humphry Davy
Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet, (17 December 177829 May 1829) was a British chemist and inventor who invented the Davy lamp and a very early form of arc lamp. He is also remembered for isolating, by using electricity, several elements for the ...
, the medal is awarded with a monetary gift, initially of £1000 (currently £2000).
History
The medal was first awarded in 1877 to
Robert Wilhelm Bunsen and
Gustav Robert Kirchhoff "for their researches & discoveries in spectrum analysis",
and has since been awarded 140 times.
The medal is awarded annually and, unlike other Royal Society medals (such as the
Hughes), has been awarded without interruption since its inception.
The medal has been awarded to multiple individuals in the same year: in 1882, for example, it was awarded to
Dmitri Mendeleev
Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev (sometimes transliterated as Mendeleyev or Mendeleef) ( ; russian: links=no, Дмитрий Иванович Менделеев, tr. , ; 8 February O.S. 27 January">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="no ...
and
Julius Lothar Meyer "for their discovery of the periodic relations of the atomic weights";
in 1883 to
Marcellin Berthelot and
Julius Thomsen
The gens Julia (''gēns Iūlia'', ) was one of the most prominent patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the ...
"for their researches in thermo-chemistry";
in 1893 to
Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff and
Joseph Achille Le Bel
Joseph Achille Le Bel (21 January 1847 in Merkwiller-Pechelbronn, Pechelbronn – 6 August 1930, in Paris, France) was a French chemist. He is best known for his work in stereochemistry. Le Bel was educated at the École Polytechnique in Paris. I ...
"In recognition of their introduction of the theory of asymmetric carbon, and its use in explaining the constitution of optically active carbon compounds";
in 1903 to
Pierre Curie
Pierre Curie ( , ; 15 May 1859 – 19 April 1906) was a French physicist, a pioneer in crystallography, magnetism, piezoelectricity, and radioactivity. In 1903, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics with his wife, Marie Curie, and Henri Becq ...
and
Marie Curie
Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie ( , , ; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first ...
"for their researches on radium"
and in 1968 to
John Cornforth and "in recognition of their distinguished joint work on the elucidation of the biosynthetic pathway to polyisoprenoids and steroids".
List of recipients
Source
Royal Society
See also
*
List of chemistry awards
References
;General
*
;Specific
External links
Royal Society official website
{{featured list
1877 introductions
1877 establishments in the United Kingdom
Chemistry awards
1877 in science
Awards of the Royal Society
Awards established in 1877