/ Medals and awards

Milner Award and Lecture

This award is made for outstanding achievement in computer science by a European researcher.

  • Opening date

  • Closing date

  • Winners announcement

    Exact date TBC

The award

The Royal Society Milner Award and Lecture, supported by Microsoft Research in order to help sustain a thriving research community in Europe, is the premier European award for outstanding achievement in computer science. It is awarded to recognise an outstanding European computer scientist, someone who has made a substantial contribution and who is likely to go on to further top-level achievement. The recipient is a European researcher or researcher who has been resident in Europe for 12 months or more, and is chosen by the Council of the Royal Society on the recommendation of the Milner Award Committee. The Committee is made up of Fellows of the Royal Society, Members of the Académie des sciences (France) and Members of Leopoldina (Germany). The award is named in honour of Professor Robin Milner FRS (1934-2010), a pioneer in computer science. The medal is of bronze, is awarded annually and is accompanied by a gift of £5,000. 

Eligibility

The Royal Society Milner award is open to European citizens or those who have been residents for at least 12 months. 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. Nominees cannot be employed by Microsoft and its affiliates (full- or part-time), including anybody who had had a formal contract or remunerative relationship with the company in the 12 months prior to nomination. 

Nominations are closed

Nominations will reopen in November 2024.

2025 winner

  • Professor Iryna Gurevych

    Professor Iryna Gurevych

    The Milner Award and Lecture 2025 is awarded to Professor Iryna Gurevych for her major contributions to natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence that combine deep understanding of human language and cognitive faculty with the latest paradigms in machine learning. Picture Credit: TU Darmstadt; Rüdiger Dunker

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Past winners

  • Artur Ekert
    Awarded in 2024

    Professor Artur Ekert FRS

    For his pioneering contributions to quantum communication and computation, which transformed the field of quantum information science from a niche academic activity into a vibrant interdisciplinary field of industrial relevance.
  • Stephane Mallat
    Awarded in 2023

    Professor Stéphane Mallat

    For his key advances in the fundamental principles of wavelets, including theory for audio, image and video processing, his entrepreneurship, and for contributing significantly to advancing the understanding of deep neural networks.
  • Professor Yvonne Rogers FRS
    Awarded in 2022

    Professor Yvonne Rogers FRS

    For contributions to Human-Computer Interaction and the design of human-centred technology.
  • Zoubin Ghahramani
    Awarded in 2021

    Professor Zoubin Ghahramani

    For his fundamental contributions to probabilistic machine learning
  • Dr Cordelia Schmid
    Awarded in 2020

    Dr Cordelia Schmid

    For her work in computer vision and her fundamental contributions to the representation of images and videos for visual recognition.
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    Awarded in 2019

    Dr Eugene Wimberly Myers Jr.

    For his development of computational techniques that have brought genome sequencing into everyday use, underpinned key biological sequencing tools, and made large scale analysis of biological images practical.
  • Professor Marta Kwiatkowska FRS
    Awarded in 2018

    Professor Marta Kwiatkowska FRS

    In recognition of her contribution to the theoretical and practical development of stochastic and quantitative model checking.
  • Professor Andrew Zisserman FRS
    Awarded in 2017

    Professor Andrew Zisserman FRS

    For his work on computational theory and commercial systems for geometrical images and as a pioneer in machine learning for vision.
  • Professor Xavier Leroy
    Awarded in 2016

    Professor Xavier Leroy

    In recognition of his exceptional achievements in computer programming which includes the design and implementation of the OCaml programming language.
  • Professor Thomas Henzinger ForMemRS
    Awarded in 2015

    Professor Thomas Henzinger ForMemRS

    For fundamental advances in the theory and practice of formal verification and synthesis of reactive, real-time, and hybrid computer systems.
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    Awarded in 2014

    Professor Bernhard Schölkopf

    For being a pioneer in machine learning whose work defined the field of “kernel machines” which are widely used in all areas of science and industry.
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    Awarded in 2014

    Dr Serge Abiteboul

    For his world leading database research with significant scientific and industrial impact.