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Royal Society Fellows win Kavli Prizes

31 May 2018

A Royal Society Fellow and Foreign Member are among the seven scientists from five countries to be announced by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters as winners of the 2018 Kavli Prizes.

Professor Robert Fettiplace FRS is one of three scientists awarded the Kavli Prize in Neuroscience for his achievements in unlocking the neuroscience underlying human hearing and Professor Jennifer Doudna ForMemRS shares the Kavli Prize in Nanoscience with two colleagues for developing the powerful tool CRISPR-Cas9 to edit DNA.

This full list of winners is:

  • Kavli Prize in Astrophysics: Ewine van Dishoeck (the Netherlands)
  • Kavli Prize in Nanoscience: Emmanuelle Charpentier (France), Jennifer A. Doudna (USA), and Virginijus Šikšnys (Lithuania)
  • Kavli Prize in Neuroscience: A. James Hudspeth (USA), Robert Fettiplace (UK), and Christine Petit (France)

The Prize consists of a gold medal and a cash prize of USD $1 million for each field. The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters selected the Laureates, based on nominations by committees whose members are recommended by six of the world's most renowned science societies and academies. The announcement of the 2018 Laureates was made in Oslo earlier today.