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The premises of The Royal Society in London (first four properties only).


The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as The Royal Society, is a learned society for science that was founded in 1660 and claims to be the oldest such society still in existence. Although a voluntary body, it serves as the academy of sciences of the United Kingdom (in which role it receives £30 million annually from the UK Government). It is a member organisation of the Science Council.

The Royal Society of Edinburgh (founded 1783) is a separate Scottish body. The Royal Irish Academy (founded 1785) is a separate Irish body.

History

The Royal Society was founded in 1660, only a few months after the Restoration of King Charles II, by members of one or two either secretive or informal societies already in existence. The Royal Society enjoyed the confidence and official support of the restored monarchy. The "New" or "Experimental" form of philosophy was generally ill-regarded by the Aristotelian (and religious) academies, but had been promoted by Sir Francis Bacon in his book The New Atlantis.

Robert Boyle refers to the "Invisible College" as early as 1646. A founding meeting was held at the premises of Gresham College in Bishopsgate on 28 November 1660, immediately after a lecture by Sir Christopher Wren, at that time Gresham Professor of Astronomy. At a second meeting a week later, Sir Robert Moray, an influential Freemason who had helped organize the public emergence of the group, reported that the King approved of the meetings. The Royal Society continued to meet at the premises of Gresham College and at Arundel House, the London home of the Dukes of Norfolk, until it moved to its own premises in Crane Court in 1710. [1]

A formal Royal Charter of incorporation passed the Great Seal on 15 July 1662, creating "The Royal Society of London", with Lord Brouncker as the first President, and Robert Hooke was appointed as Curator of Experiments in November 1662. A second Royal Charter was sealed on 23 April 1663, naming the King as Founder and changing the name to "The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge".

The motto of the Royal Society, "Nullius in Verba" (Latin: "On the words of no one"), signifies the Society's commitment to establishing the truth of scientific matters through experiment rather than through citation of authority. Although this seems obvious today, the philosophical basis of the Royal Society differed from previous philosophies such as Scholasticism, which established scientific truth based on deductive logic, concordance with divine providence and the citation of such ancient authorities as Aristotle.

Historical philosophy and significance

The Royal Society imagined a network across the globe as a public enterprise, an "Empire of Learning", and strove to remove language barriers within the Sciences. The Royal Society was dedicated to the free flow of information and encouraged communication. Boyle, in particular, began the practice of reporting his experiments in great detail so that others could replicate them, unlike previous alchemists. Sir Isaac Newton was a practising alchemist and his assistant, J. T. Desaguliers, a demonstrator for the Royal Society, was a prominent Freemason and Grand Master of the Premier Grand Lodge of England. During the eighteenth century, masonic lodges in France became conduits for circulating scientific texts which could not be made available publicly (see John Toland). While the proceedings of the Royal Society reported for instance Chinese alchemists' immortality potions as fact, the Royal society did actually put the superstitions current to rigorous testing, for instance placing a spider on a table and sprinkling a circle of salt around it; on the theory that it could not walk across the salt. The spider promptly left the circle, thus disproving that myth.

Reform

In 1821 Humphry Davy became president and marked a shift in membership towards practising scientists, rather than gentlemen and amateurs. The Industrial Revolution and the needs of business had alerted society to the demand for a professional body for leading scientists. However, the Society's royal charter guaranteed the Fellows an unfettered right to elect to Fellowship whoever they chose and regulation of the number of new members and their scientific qualifications became a pressing concern. In 1823, a committee was established to review the statutes of the Society but it was only in 1827 that the question of membership was considered. James South succeeded in establishing a committee to "consider the best means of limiting the members admitted to the Royal Society, as well as to make such Suggestions on that subject as may seem to them conducive to the Welfare of the Society." However, the committee, chaired by William Hyde Wollaston and comprising South, Davies Gilbert, John Herschel, Thomas Young, Charles Babbage, Francis Beaufort and Henry Kater, had little impact when it reported.[1]

A new crisis was precipitated when Davy resigned as president in July 1827. Gilbert canvassed Sir Robert Peel as a new president. Peel had been an important political intermediary in establishing the Royal Medals, but many were appalled at the prospect of a political, rather than scientific, president. In the face of a deadlock, Davies took the presidency for the remainder of the year but was then succeeded by the nonscientists the Duke of Sussex and then the Marquess of Northampton.[1]

In 1846, the Society established a Charters Committee "with a view to obtaining a supplementary Charter from the Crown", and a particular remit to consider the membership issue. When he was elected to the Council that year, William Robert Grove was co-opted to the committee, his experience in both science and law making him particularly qualified. The committee recommended:[1]
  • Election of Fellows on one day only each year. There had previously been four elections which made the thorough appraisal of candidates difficult;
  • Number of new Fellows limited to fifteen per year; and
  • Thorough consideration of scientific qualifications of candidates.
However, the Society sought the opinion of the Attorney General and Solicitor General who held that it would not be lawful to limit the membership under the current charter. It was Grove who resolved the deadlock by proposing that a limited intake of fifteen be proposed by the council to the Fellows for election, effectively limiting the new membership. Grove facilitated the adoption of the new rules against opposition from the amateurs and from some professionals who regretted any weakening of links with the political establishment. During the 1870s, membership of the Society fell to about 500.[1]

Current activities and significance

  • Funding scientific research. This is the largest area of expenditure for the Society, costing around £30 m each year. http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/publication.asp?id=5398 The flagship scheme is the University Research Fellowship which funds early careers scientists, with approximately 300 in post at any time. http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/funding.asp?id=1121 Other schemes include the Royal Society Research Professorships to be awarded to world leading scientists based in the UK such as Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys FRS and international schemes to encourage foreign collaboration. The majority of grants are paid from the Society's Parliamentary Grant in Aid although some are funded by private donors such as BP and the Wolfson Foundation.
  • Publishing (see later).
  • Providing science advice, including science and mathematics education. High profile reports have recently been produced on nanotechnology and the use of non-human primates in research.
  • Science in Society programme to increase public interest in science. Activities include public lectures, discussion meetings and the annual Summer Science Exhibition (in London and Glasgow).

Publications

The Royal Society publishes seven, high quality peer-reviewed journals covering: biological and physical sciences; history and philosophy of science; and cross-disciplinary research at the interface between the physical and life sciences. The list includes the world's longest running scientific journal, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.

Governance

The Society is governed by its Council of Trustees, which is chaired by its President. The members of Council and the President are elected from its Fellowship.

Fellowship

As with many learned societies, the Society's governance structure is based on its Fellowship. Fellows are elected annually by the existing Fellowship for their "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge including mathematics, engineering science and medical science". Fellows must be citizens or ordinarily resident of the Commonwealth or Republic of Ireland, otherwise they may be elected as a Foreign Member.

Fellows are entitled to use the post-nominal letters FRS. Up to 44 new fellows are elected each year by ballot of the existing fellows of the Society based on a shortlist drawn up by Council and its 10 Sectional Committees. The Society's statutes state that candidates for election must have made "a substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematics, engineering science and medical science".

There are two additional categories: Royal Fellow, for a member of the Royal family to be admitted, and Honorary Fellow, for someone who has "rendered signal service to the cause of science, or whose election would significantly benefit the Society by their great experience in other walks of life". A maximum of forty-four Fellows, six Foreign Members and one Honorary Fellow may be elected each year. [2]

Foreign Member of the Royal Society is an honorary position within the Royal Society. It is a position at the same rank as a Fellow of the Royal Society to which scientists from outside the Commonwealth and the Republic of Ireland may be elected. Someone elected a Foreign Member may use the post-nominal letters ForMemRS.

Prior to the creation of the position of Honorary Fellow in 2000, people distinguished in other walks of life would sometimes be elected as Fellows; examples of this are the British Prime Ministers Benjamin Disraeli, Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee, and Margaret Thatcher.

Council and Officers

The Fellowship elects twenty-one members of Council, the governing body and trustees of the society. The chair of the council is the President of the Royal Society, currently Martin Rees. There are four other titled posts, variously referred to as Vice-Presidents, Secretaries and Officers: the Treasurer, the Foreign Secretary, the Physical Secretary and the Biological Secretary. The current holders of these posts are respectively David Wallace, Lorna Casselton, Martin J. Taylor, and David Read. [3] [4]

A selected list of Presidents

Enlarge picture
Mace of the Royal Society, granted by Charles II


Main article: Presidents of the Royal Society

Permanent Staff

The Society's 15 Sections are administered by the permanent staff, led by the Executive Secretary, Stephen Cox CVO. The Executive Secretary is supported by the Senior Managers of the Society:
  • Mr. Ian Cooper, Director of Finance and Operations
  • Dr. Peter Collins, Director of Science Policy
  • Dr. David Stewart Boak, Director of Communications

Awards

The Society awards 10 medals, 7 prizes (which it terms awards) and 9 prize lectureships variously annually, biennially or triennially, according to the terms of reference for each award. The Society also runs The Aventis Prizes for Science Books.

Medals and Prize lectures are awarded to scientists in honour of the excellence of their science. Only Fellows can make nominations, which are assessed by committees of Fellows which recommends to the Society's Council who should receive them. Nominees do not have to be Fellows. Recipients of Medals and Prize Lectures receive a struck medal, a scroll, and an honorarium from the Society's private funds. Prize lecturers are required to give a public lecture. [5].

The Prizes often have the word Award in their title, and are open to nomination from all. They have a variety of assessment criteria and selection process. Some, such as the Michael Faraday Prize, require the recipient to give a public lecture, whereas others, such as the Kohn Award, provide funds for the recipient to undertake a project.

A full list of recipients is on the Awards section of the Society's website.

Awards

Medals

  • Buchanan Medal (for achievements in medicine)
  • Copley Medal (for work in any field of science)
  • Darwin Medal (for work in the broad area of biology in which Charles Darwin worked)
  • Davy Medal (for work in any branch of chemistry)
  • Gabor Medal (for work in biology, especially in genetic engineering and molecular biology)
  • Hughes Medal (for work in the physical sciences, particularly electricity and magnetism)
  • Leverhulme Medal (for work in pure or applied chemistry or engineering)
  • Royal Medals (for the two most important contributions to the advancement of Natural Knowledge)
  • Rumford Medal (for work in the fields of heat or light)
  • Sylvester Medal (for the encouragement of mathematical research)

Prize lectures

Selected bibliography

Enlarge picture
The coat-of-arms of the Royal Society as a stained-glass window. The motto is 'Nullius in verba'.

Timeline

See also

In fiction

The early Royal Society is satirised in Jonathan Swift's 1726 novel Gulliver's Travels when the eponymous protagonist visits the flying island of Laputa.

The early days of the Royal Society also form the backdrop for the events of Neal Stephenson's Baroque cycle of novels — Quicksilver, The Confusion and The System of the World.

The founding members of the Royal Society (such as Robert Boyle) are used as secondary characters in the historical mystery novel An Instance of the Fingerpost, published in 1997 by English writer and art historian Iain Pears. Purposes of the organization and membership are discussed in parts of the novel, and a days proceedings forms an integral part of the story.

References

1. ^ >Crowther, J. G. (1965). Statesmen of Science. London: Cresset Press, 93-97. 

Bibliography

  • Purver, Margery; Bowen, E. J. (1960). The Beginning of the Royal Society. Oxford: Clarendon Press. OCLC 9381245. 
  • Gleick, James (2004). Isaac Newton. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 1-4000-3295-4. OCLC 55696750. 
  • Sir Harold Hartley (ed.) (1960). The Royal Society: Its Origins and Founders. London: Royal Society. OCLC 813245. 
  • Rousseau, George (1981). The Letters and Private Papers of Sir John Hill, 1714-1775. New York: AMS Press. ISBN 0-404614728. OCLC 8111658. 
  • Sprat, Thomas; Abraham Cowley [1667] (2003-02-01). The history of the Royal-Society of London for the improving of natural knowledge. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 0-7661-2867-9. OCLC 63174140. 
  • Lomas, Robert (2002). Freemasonry and the Birth of Modern Science. Gloucester, Mass.: Fair Winds Press. ISBN 1592330118. OCLC 52158257. 
  • Homes of the Royal Society. The Royal Society (nd). Retrieved on 2005-12-15.

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A learned society is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline or group of disciplines. Membership may be open to all, may require possession of some qualification, or may be an honor conferred by election, as is the case with the oldest learned societies, such
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The Science Council is the umbrella body for scientific professional institutes and learned societies in the UK. Together, the member organisations represent over 400,000 scientists. A similar organisation, the Engineering Council UK (ECUK), covers engineering institutes.
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Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. The membership consists of over 1400 peer-elected fellows, who are known as Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, denoted FRSE in official titles.
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The Royal Irish Academy (RIA) is one of Ireland's premier learned societies and cultural institutions. Founded in 1785, its current and former members include artists, scientists and writers from around Ireland.
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English Restoration, or simply The Restoration, was an episode in the history of Britain beginning in 1660 when the English monarchy, Scottish monarchy and Irish monarchy were restored under King Charles II after the English Civil War.
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Charles II (Charles Stuart; 29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685) was the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

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Philosophy is the discipline concerned with questions of how one should live (ethics); what sorts of things exist and what are their essential natures (metaphysics); what counts as genuine knowledge (epistemology); and what are the correct principles of reasoning (logic).
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Aristotle (Greek: Ἀριστοτέλης Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great.
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Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher, statesman, and essayist. He is also known as a proponent of the scientific revolution.
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The New Atlantis
Author Francis Bacon
Country United Kingdom
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Genre(s) Utopian novel
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Robert Boyle

Robert Boyle
Born 25 January 1627
Lismore Castle, Munster, Ireland
Died 30 December 1691 (aged 64)

Nationality Irish
Field Chemistry, Physics
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Invisible College was a precursor to the Royal Society of United Kingdom. It consisted of a group of scientists including Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, John Wallis, John Evelyn, Robert Hooke, Christopher Wren and William Petty.
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Gresham College is an unusual institution of higher learning off Holborn in central London. It enrolls no students and grants no degrees. The Collège de France offers perhaps a Parisian equivalent.
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Sir Christopher Wren in Godfrey Kneller's 1711 portrait
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Sir Robert Moray FRS (10 March 1609 – 4 July 1673), was a Scottish soldier, freemason and natural philosopher. He was well known to Charles I and Charles II, and French Cardinals Richelieu and Cardinal Mazarin.
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William Brouncker, 2nd Viscount Brouncker, FRS (1620 – 5 April 1684) was an English mathematician.

Brouncker obtained a PhD at the University of Oxford in 1647. He was one of the founders and the first President of the Royal Society.
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The President of the Royal Society (PRS) is the elected head of the Royal Society of London. The position is now awarded to a member of the scientific community of the British Commonwealth for a period of five years, and is one of the highest honours that can be bestowed upon a
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Robert Hooke, FRS (July 18, 1635 – March 3, 1703) was an English polymath who played an important role in the scientific revolution, through both experimental and theoretical work.
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