DES7464_Trustees report and financial statements

STRATEGIC REPORT GOVERNANCE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION SCIENCE IN A PANDEMIC: ADAPTING TO THE PRESENT AND PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE 5 THE ROYAL SOCIETY TRUSTEES’ REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 4 At a glance Our heritage The Royal Society is founded, following a lecture by Christopher Wren. Edmond Halley FRS publishes his ‘Estimate of the degrees of the mortality of mankind’, a pioneering contribution to demography and actuarial science, in Philosophical Transactions . The Copley Medal is established from an endowment of £100 received from the estate of Sir Godfrey Copley FRS in 1709. It is the world’s oldest scientific honour, a prestigious forerunner of the Nobel Prize. The UK Government awards the Society its first annual Government grant of £1,000 to be distributed for ‘private individual scientific research’. The Royal Society University Research Fellowships are established to create opportunities for early career scientists with UK universities. 1660 1693 1736 1851 1983 LOOKING FORWARD: 2022 Dutch microscopist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek FRS, the first person to observe microbes through a lens, writes to the Royal Society. His letter begins a 50-year correspondence vital in establishing the new discipline of microbiology. Royal Society Wolfson Research Professor Dorothy Hodgkin FRS becomes the UK’s only female Nobel Prize-winning scientist. She used X-ray crystallography to solve the structure of penicillin. The Royal Society’s Buchanan Medal is first awarded ‘in recognition of distinguished contribution to the medical sciences’. Sir Richard Doll FRS would go on to receive the medal in 1972 for his work in epidemiology and cancer prevention. Joseph Lister FRS, instrumental in developing practical applications of germ theory, is awarded the Copley Medal ‘in recognition of the value of his physiological and pathological researches in regard to their influence on the modern practice of surgery’. A letter sent from Constantinople, written by Emanuel Timonius FRS and giving an early account of smallpox inoculation, is read to the Royal Society. The practice becomes widespread in Britain in the 1720s. The Society publishes Open Biology , its first fully open access journal. 1673 1964 1902 1714 2011 Howard Florey FRS, later President of the Royal Society, carries out the first clinical trials on penicillin. Four years later, he shares the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Ernst Chain and Alexander Fleming. Edward Jenner FRS unveils a new weapon in the fight against smallpox – vaccination. It will eventually lead to the eradication of the disease in humans. 1797 The Tropical Diseases Committee of the Royal Society, originally intended to assist the Government in the study of malaria and its prevention, is extended to investigate all diseases prevalent in tropical regions. Two years after the election of the first women to the Royal Society, Muriel Robertson becomes a Fellow for her contributions to protozoology and immunology, including important research into the life cycles of trypanosomes. 1904 The Royal Society will continue to promote science and its benefits through its roles as a charity, Fellowship and National Academy. 1897 1941 1947