The Croonian Lecture is delivered annually at the Royal Society in London and is accompanied by a medal and a gift of £1,000.
The lectureship was conceived by William Croone FRS (PDF), one of the original Fellows of the Society. Among the papers left on his death in 1684 were plans to endow two lectureships, one at the Royal Society and the other at the Royal College of Physicians. His widow later bequeathed the means to carry out the scheme and indicated that the bequest was “for the support of a lecture and illustrative experiment for the advancement of natural knowledge on local motion, or (conditionally) of such other subjects as, in the opinion of the President for the time being, should be most useful in promoting the objects for which the Royal Society was instituted”. The lecture series began in 1738.
The award is open to citizens of a Commonwealth country or of the Irish Republic or those who have been ordinarily resident and working in a Commonwealth country or in the Irish Republic for a minimum of three years immediately prior to being proposed.
The recipient is chosen by the Council of the Royal Society on the recommendation of the Biological Sciences Awards Committee. Nominations are valid for five years after which the candidate cannot be re-nominated until a year after the nomination has expired.
Nominations
The award winner will be announced in the summer of 2012 and the next call for nominations will open on 30 November 2012.