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"Royal Society" redirects here. For other uses, see Royal Society (disambiguation).

The premises of The Royal Society, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London (first four properties only)

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The Royal Society is a society for science and scientists. It was founded in 1660 by Charles II. It is the oldest society of its kind still in existence.

History

A Royal Charter, on 15 July 1662, created "The Royal Society of London".

Lord Brouncker was the first President, and Robert Hooke was Curator of Experiments. The reigning monarch has always been the patron of the Royal Society since its foundation.

The motto of the Royal Society is Nullius in Verba (Latin: take nobody's word for it). This shows the Society's commitment to establishing scientific truth through experiment rather than by quoting 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.

Fellows

The members of the society are called Fellows of the Royal Society, and put the letters FRS after their names. There are usually about 1600 of them. They are elected by existing Fellows. All other posts, such as the Secretary and President, are also by election.

A selected list of presidents

Mace of the Royal Society, granted by Charles II.

• Sir Christopher Wren (1680–1682)
• Samuel Pepys (1684–1686)
• Charles Montagu (1695–1698)
• The Lord Somers (1698–1703)
• Sir Isaac Newton (1703–1727)
• Joseph Banks (1778–1820)
• Sir Humphry Davy (1820–1827)
• Prince Augustus, Duke of Sussex (1830–1838)
• William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse (1848–1854)
• Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (1873–1878)
• Thomas Henry Huxley (1883–1885)
• George Gabriel Stokes (1885–1890)
• William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (1890–1895)
• Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister (1895–1900)
• Sir William Huggins (1900–1905)
• John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh (1905–1908)
• Sir Joseph John Thomson (1915–1920)
• Sir Ernest Rutherford (1925–1930)
• Sir William Henry Bragg (1935–1940)
• Sir Henry Hallett Dale (1940–1945)
• Howard Florey, Baron Florey (1960)
• Sir Andrew Huxley (1980–1985)
• Sir Aaron Klug (1995–2000)
• Robert May, Baron May of Oxford (2000–2005)
• Martin Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow (2005–2010)
• Sir Paul Nurse (2010–2015)

Data from Royal Society website.

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, including:

• Mr Ian Cooper, Director of Finance and Operations
• Dr Peter Collins, Director of Science Policy
• Dr Peter Cotgreave, Director of Communications

The Society bestows ten medals, seven awards (prizes) and nine 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.

Awards

• Armourers & Brasiers’ Prize
• Kohn Award
• Michael Faraday Prize
• Mullard Award
• Royal Society Pfizer Award
• Rosalind Franklin Award
• Microsoft European Science Award (started in 2006)

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 Medal (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

• Bakerian lecture
• Francis Crick Lecture
• Croonian Lecture
• Ferrier Lecture
• Leeuwenhoek Lecture
• Clifford Paterson lecture
• Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar lecture
• Details of Royal Society prize lectures Archived 2025-08-08 at the Wayback Machine

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

Timeline

• 1640s — informal meetings
• 28 November 1660 — Royal Society founded at Gresham College
• 1661 — name first appears in print, and library presented with its first book
• 1662 — first Royal Charter gives permission to publish
• 1663 — second Royal Charter
• 1665 — first issue of Philosophical Transactions
• 1666 — Fire of London causes move to Arundel House until 1673, then returns to Gresham College
• 1669 — third Royal Charter; original proposal would have made Chelsea College the permanent home of the Society, but the site became Chelsea Hospital instead
• 1710 — gets its own home in Crane Court
• 1780 — moves to premises at Somerset House provided by the Crown
• 1847 — changed election criteria so that Fellows would be elected solely on the merit of their scientific work
• 1850 — Parliamentary Grant-in-aid commences, of ￡1,000, to assist scientists in their research and to buy equipment.
• 1857 — moved to Burlington House in Piccadilly
• 1967 — moved to present location on Carlton House Terrace

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 1400032954. OCLC 55696750.
• Hartley, Harold, 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, 17141775. New York: AMS Press. ISBN 0404614728. OCLC 8111658.
• Sprat, Thomas & Cowley, Abraham (2003) [1667]. The history of the RoyalSociety of London for the improving of natural knowledge. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 0766128679. OCLC 63174140.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• 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. Archived from the original on 2025-08-08. Retrieved 2025-08-08.

Related pages

• List of Royal Societies

Other websites

• The Royal Society website — RS list of Fellows Archived 2025-08-08 at the Wayback Machine — Citations arranged by year of election
• The Royal Society Publishing website Archived 2025-08-08 at the Wayback Machine
  • Digital Journal Archive Archived 2025-08-08 at the Wayback Machine
• The Royal Society of London Archived 2025-08-08 at the Wayback Machine (a brief history)
• Scholarly Societies Project: Royal Society of London Archived 2025-08-08 at the Wayback Machine
• Three lectures presented at the Royal Society by Harry Kroto (Faraday Lecture), Paul Hoffman (Paul Erdos), Paul Davies (Blackholes, Worm Holes and Time Travel). Freeview video from the Vega Science Trust
• A visualisation of the Royal Society's publications from 1665 to 2005
• "NULLIUS IN VERBA" Archived 2025-08-08 at the Wayback Machine Lord Rees Replies