Three Fellows of the Royal Society awarded prestigious Kavli Prize

Three Fellows of the Royal Society have today been named as recipients of this year’s prestigious Kavli Prizes. Sir John Pendry, Brenda Milner and John O’Keefe will be awarded the coveted prizes which recognise scientists for their seminal advances in their respective fields.

Sir John Pendy FRS, whose pioneering work includes research on the possibility of cloaks which could bend light around an object making it appear invisible, will be awarded this year’s prize in Nanoscience which he shares with Thomas W. Ebbesen and Stefan W. Hell.

Together they receive the prize ‘for transformative contribution to the field of nanooptics that have broken long-held beliefs about the limitations of the resolution limits of optical microscopy and imaging’.

Brenda Milner FRS and John O’Keefe FRS have both been named as recipients of the 2014 Kavli prize in Neuroscience ‘for the discovery of specialized brain networks for memory and cognition’. They share the prize with Marcus E. Raichle.

Brenda Milner’s research focuses on cognitive function in the frontal and temporal lobes of humans and uses MRI imaging to identify the brain regions involved in language processing in unilingual and bilingual volunteers and in patients with brain lesions close to areas critical for language.

John O’Keefe’s research that has been recognised by the Kavli prize focuses on the neural basis of cognition and memory and the function of the hippocampus and related temporal lobe structures in the human brain.

The Kavli prize, which has recognised 9 pioneering scientists this year, is awarded by The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and includes a cash award of 1 million US dollars in each field. The laureates will also receive a gold medal and a scroll in recognition of their contributions in their fields.