New scientists elected as distinguished Fellows and Foreign Members of the Royal Society

Fifty eminent scientists have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society and ten as new Foreign Members for their exceptional contributions to science.

Venki Ramakrishnan, President of the Royal Society, says: 

“Our Fellows are key to the Royal Society’s fundamental purpose of using science for the benefit of humanity. From Norwich to Melbourne to Ethiopia, this year’s newly elected Fellows and Foreign Members of the Royal Society are testament that science is a global endeavour and excellent ideas transcend borders. We also recognise the cutting edge innovation taking place across industry, with many of this year’s Fellows coming from the thriving tech industry. For their outstanding contributions to research and innovation, both now and in the future, it gives me great pleasure to welcome the world’s best scientists into the ranks of the Royal Society.”

Some statistics about this year’s intake are as follows:

• 14 of this year’s intake of Fellows (12) and Foreign Members (2) are women
• New Fellows have been elected from across the UK and Commonwealth, including Auckland, Melbourne, Newcastle, Surrey and Toronto, along with those from international institutions in Israel, Ethiopia, Italy and Switzerland

The full list of the newly-elected Fellows and Foreign Members of the Royal Society are, in alphabetical order:

Fellows of the Royal Society

• Jim Al-Khalili OBE FRS, Professor of Physics and Professor of Public Engagement in Science, Department of Physics, University of Surrey
• Polly Arnold OBE FRS, Crum Brown Chair of Chemistry, EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh
• Jillian Banfield FRS, Professor, University of California, Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of Melbourne
• Margaret Brimble CNZM FRS, Distinguished Professor, Chair of Organic Chemistry and  Director of Medicinal Chemistry, School of Chemical Sciences and School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland
• Neil Brockdorff FRS,  Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow, Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford
• Frank Caruso FRS, Melbourne Laureate Professor and NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow, Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Melbourne
• Vincenzo Cerundolo FMedSci FRS, Director, MRC Human Immunology Unit, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford
• Kevin Costello FRS, Krembil Foundation William Rowan Hamilton Chair in Theoretical Physics, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
• Robert Crabtree FRS, Whitehead Professor of Chemistry, Department of Chemistry and Energy Sciences Institute, Yale University
• Alexander Dawid FRS, Emeritus Professor of Statistics, Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics, University of Cambridge
• Peter Dayan FRS, Professor of Computational Neuroscience, Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, University College London
• Richard Dixon FRS, Distinguished Research Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, University of North Texas
• Gregory Edgecombe FRS, Merit Researcher, Department of Earth Sciences, The Natural History Museum
• Wenfei Fan FRS, Professor of Web Data Management, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh
• Roger Goody FRS, Emeritus Director, Max-Planck-Institute of Molecular Physiology
• Robin Grimes FRS, Professor of Materials Physics, Department of Materials, Imperial College London and Chief Scientific Adviser, Foreign & Commonwealth Office
• Gregory Hannon FRS, Royal Society Wolfson Research Professor of Molecular Cancer Biology and Director, Cancer Research UK, Cambridge Institute, University of Cambridge 
• Demis Hassabis CBE FREng FRS, Founder and CEO, DeepMind
• Judy Hirst FRS, Deputy Director, MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit, University of Cambridge
• Graeme Jameson AO FREng FRS, Laureate Professor and Director of the Centre for Multiphase Processes, University of Newcastle (Australia)
• Harren Jhoti FRS, President and CEO, Astex Pharmaceuticals
• Sophien Kamoun FRS, Senior Scientist, The Sainsbury Laboratory
• Andrew King FMedSci FRS, Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow and Professor of Neurophysiology, Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford
• Dimitri Kullmann FMedSci FRS, Professor of Neurology, Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy, Institute of Neurology, University College London
• Dominic Kwiatkowski FMedSci FRS, Head of Parasites and Microbes Programme, Wellcome Sanger Institute and Professor of Genomics and Global Health, University of Oxford
• Richard Marais FRS, Director, The CRUK Manchester Institute, University of Manchester
• Catherine Martin MBE FRS, Project Leader, Department of Metabolic Biology, John Innes Centre
• Elon Musk FRS, Engineer, inventor and entrepreneur
• Peter O'Hearn FRS, Research Scientist, Facebook, and Professor of Computer Science, University College London
• Vassilis Pachnis FMedSci FRS, Senior Group Leader, Development and Homeostasis of the Nervous System Laboratory, The Francis Crick Institute
• Tracy Palmer FRS, Professor of Molecular Microbiology, Division of Molecular Microbiology, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee
• Colin Prentice FRS, AXA Professor of Biosphere and Climate Impacts, Imperial College London
• Lalita Ramakrishnan FRS, Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases and Head of Molecular Immunity Unit, Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge
• Nancy Reid OC FRS, University Professor of Statistical Sciences and Canada Research Chair, Department of Statistical Sciences, University of Toronto, and Director, Canadian Statistical Sciences Institute
• Graham Richards CBE FRS, Chairman and Founder, Oxford Drug Design Ltd and Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford
• David Richardson FREng FRS, Deputy Director, Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton
• Sheila Rowan FRS, Director, Institute for Gravitational Research, University of Glasgow
• Ingrid Scheffer AO FRS, Chair of Paediatric Neurology, The University of Melbourne, Honorary Senior Principal Research Fellow, The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, and Director of Paediatrics, Austin Health
• Michelle Simmons FRS, Professor of Physics and Director, Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology, University of New South Wales
• John Smol FRS, Professor, Department of Biology and School of Environmental Studies, Queen’s University (Canada)
• Timothy Softley FRS, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Knowledge Transfer), University of Birmingham
• John Speakman FMedSci FRS, Chair in Zoology, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, University of Aberdeen and '1000 talents' Professor, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
• Graeme Stephens FRS, Director, Center for Climate Sciences, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
• Angela Strank DBE FREng FRS, BP Chief Scientist and Head of Technology, Downstream , BP plc
• Charles Swanton FMedSci FRS, Director, CRUK UCL/Manchester Lung Cancer Centre, UCL Cancer Institute and Senior Group Leader, Francis Crick Institute
• Peter Visscher FRS, Professor and Chair of Quantitative Genetics and Director, Program in Complex Trait Genomics, University of Queensland
• Guy Wilkinson FRS, Professor of Physics, Department of Physics, University of Oxford
• Geordie Williamson FRS, Professor of Mathematics, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Sydney
• Daniel Wise FRS, James McGill Professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, McGill University
• Nikolay Zheludev FRS, Deputy Director, Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton and Co-Director, The Photonics Institute, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Foreign Members

• Carolyn Bertozzi ForMemRS, Anne T and Robert M Bass Professor of Chemistry, Department of Chemistry and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University
• Martin Chalfie ForMemRS, University Professor, Department of Biological Sciences,  Columbia University
• Sebsebe Demissew ForMemRS, Professor of Plant Systematics and Biodiversity, College of Natural Sciences, Addis Ababa University and Executive Director, Gullele Botanic Garden, Ethiopia
• Jeffrey Friedman ForMemRS, Marilyn M Simpson Professor, Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, Rockefeller University and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
• Fabiola Gianotti ForMemRS, Physicist, Director-General, CERN
• Albrecht Hofmann ForMemRS, Emeritus at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and Senior Visiting Research Scientist and Adjunct Professor,  Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University
• Butler Lampson ForMemRS, Technical Fellow, Microsoft Corporation
• Tullio Pozzan ForMemRS, Director, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Italian National Research Council and Professor of General Pathology, University of Padova
• Joachim Sauer ForMemRS, Professor of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
• Adi Shamir ForMemRS, Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, The Weizmann Institute of Science

Honorary Fellow

• Lord Willetts FRS, Executive Chair of the Resolution Foundation, Visiting Professor at King’s College, London and member of the House of Lords