/ Medals and awards

Buchanan Medal

This medal is awarded for distinguished contributions to the biomedical sciences.

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  • Opening date

  • Closing date

  • Winners announcement

    Exact date TBC

The award

The Buchanan Medal is awarded for distinguished contributions to the biomedical sciences. The award was created from a fund to the memory of the physician George Buchanan FRS (PDF), former Chief Medical Officer of the UK, and was first awarded in 1897. The medal is of silver gilt, is awarded annually and is accompanied by a gift of £2,000.

Eligibility

The Buchanan medal is open to UK/Commonwealth/Republic of Ireland citizens or those who have been residents for three or more years. There are no restrictions on career stage and nominations will remain valid and shall be considered by the award selection committee throughout three nomination cycles. Teams or groups may now be nominated for this award.

Nominations are now open

Nominations are now open and will close on 21 February 2025. 

2024 winner

  • Professor Jane Visvader FRS and Professor Geoffrey Lindeman

    Professor Jane Visvader FRS and Professor Geoffrey Lindeman

    The Buchanan Medal 2024 is awarded to Professor Jane Visvader FRS and Geoffrey Lindeman for their discoveries around breast stem and progenitor cells and using this knowledge to discover new approaches to breast cancer treatment and prevention. Picture credit: Czesia Markiewicz; The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research

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Past winners

  • Hagan Bayley
    Awarded in 2023

    Professor Hagan Bayley FRS

    For helping pioneer the founding Oxford Nanopore Technology, the hugely successful biotech company.
  • Richard Moxon
    Awarded in 2022

    Professor Richard Moxon FMedSci FRS

    For helping pioneer the field of molecular microbiology; discovering contingency loci in bacteria that facilitate rapid evolution under selection and making key contributions to the development of meningitis vaccines.
  • Anne Ferguson-Smith
    Awarded in 2021

    Professor Anne Ferguson-Smith FMedSci FRS

    For her pioneering work in epigenetics, her interdisciplinary work on genomic imprinting, the interplay between the genome and epigenome, and how genetic and environmental influences affect development and human diseases.
  • Doug Turnbull
    Awarded in 2020

    Sir Doug Turnbull FMedSci FRS

    For outstanding contributions to biomedicine particularly in relation to mitochondrial disease, including the development of a method to prevent their transmission.
  • Gillian Griffiths
    Awarded in 2019

    Professor Gillian Griffiths FMedSci FRS

    For establishing the fundamental cell biological mechanisms that drive cytotoxic T-cell killing, laying the foundations for informed application of cancer immunotherapy.
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    Awarded in 2018

    Sir Adrian Peter Bird CBE FRS

    For his discovery that 5-methycytosine-binding MeCP2 protein silences transcription of methylated DNA and can reverse established Rett Syndrome in MeCP2 deficiency, the first demonstration that such neurodevelopmental diseases are curable.
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    Awarded in 2017

    Sir Peter Ratcliffe FMedSci FRS

    For his ground-breaking research on oxygen sensing and signalling pathways mediating cellular responses to hypoxia.
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    Awarded in 2015

    Professor Irwin McLean FMedSci FRS

    For his major contribution to our understanding of the genetic basis of heritable skin diseases.
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    Awarded in 2013

    Professor Douglas Higgs FMedSci FRS

    For his seminal work on the regulation of the human alpha-globin gene cluster and the role of the ATRX protein in genetic disease.
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    Awarded in 2011

    Sir Stephen Jackson FMedSci FRS

    For his outstanding contributions to understanding DNA repair and DNA-damage-response signalling pathways.
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    Awarded in 2010

    Professor Peter Cresswell FRS

    For his outstanding contributions to immunology, in particular to our understanding of the processing of foreign protein antigens within cells to stimulate T-cell immune responses.
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    Awarded in 2008

    Professor Christopher Marshall FMedSci FRS

    For his outstanding contribution to understanding the process whereby cancers develop and in the identification of major targets for their therapeutic treatment.