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The Fellowship

President

Dr Venki Ramakrishnan is President of the Royal Society. He started his five year term on 1 December 2015.

Venki received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on ribosomal structure and was knighted in 2012.

Read more about Venki

About the Fellowship

The Royal Society is a self-governing Fellowship made up of the most eminent scientists, engineers and technologists from the UK and the Commonwealth. Fellows and Foreign Members are elected for life through a peer review process on the basis of excellence in science.

There are approximately 1,600 Fellows and Foreign Members, including around 80 Nobel Laureates. Each year up to 52 Fellows and up to 10 Foreign Members are elected from a group of around 700 candidates who are proposed by the existing Fellowship.

Search the Fellows Directory.

Read more about the Fellowship.

Fellows in the news

John B. Goodenough ForMemRS wins Nobel Prize in Chemistry

The Royal Society offers its congratulations to the winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2019, including Foreign Member of the Royal Society, and Copley Award Winner, John B. Goodenough.

John’s discovery of lithium cobalt oxide led to the development of the high-performance rechargeable lithium-ion batteries now widely used in devices such as mobile phones and laptop computers.

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Sir Peter Ratcliffe FRS wins Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has jointly awarded this year’s prize to Sir Peter, alongside Professor William Kaelin Jr and Professor Gregg Semenza “for their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability."

Peter Ratcliffe has dedicated his research career to understanding the body’s molecular-level response to low oxygen levels, or ‘hypoxia’.

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Governance

The Royal Society is governed by a Council of Fellows, who are elected by the Fellowship. Find out more about the Officers, Council and Committees who oversee the work of the Society.

How is the Society run?

About the Fellowship

Discover the lives and scientific achievements of former Fellows in our Biographical Memoirs publication. Or find out more about the process of nomination, selection and admission.

How are Fellows and Foreign Members elected?

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