Exceptional scientists elected as Fellows of the Royal Society

Eighty outstanding researchers, innovators and communicators from around the world have been elected as the newest Fellows of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences and the oldest science academy in continuous existence. 

They have been selected for their substantial contribution to the advancement of science, from the use of forensic techniques to identify victims of war crimes, to investigating processes in the Earth’s core, and mapping the world’s largest tropical peatlands in the Congo basin.

Sir Adrian Smith, President of the Royal Society said: “I am delighted to welcome our newest cohort of Fellows.  

“These individuals have pushed forward the boundaries of their respective fields and had a beneficial influence on the world beyond. 

“Among this year’s intake are individuals who were at the forefront of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and those working on global challenges, from TB to climate change. They are pioneering scientists and innovators from around the world who have confounded expectations and transformed our thinking.  

“This year’s intake have already achieved incredible things, and I have no doubt that they will continue to do so. I look forward to meeting them and following their contributions in future.”

This year sees 59 Fellows, 19 Foreign Members and two Honorary Fellows elected, reflecting changes introduced in 2023 which increased the maximum number who can be elected. This will help create a broader and more engaged Fellowship and support the Society’s mission of championing excellence in research and science for the benefit of humanity. 

The Fellows and Foreign Members join the ranks of Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Lise Meitner, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Dorothy Hodgkin. 

Statistics about this year’s intake of Fellows:

• 30% of this year’s intake of Fellows, Foreign Members and Honorary Fellows are women.
• New Fellows have been elected from 20 UK institutions, including Manchester, Sussex, Exeter and Edinburgh.
• They have been elected from countries including Japan, Finland, China and South Africa.

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

New Fellows

Professor Bashir M Al-Hashimi CBE FREng FRS
Vice President (Research & Innovation), King’s College London

Professor Judith Allen FMedSci FRS
Professor of Immunobiology, Faculty of Medicine, Biology and Health, University of Manchester

Professor Myles Allen CBE FRS
Professor of Geosystem Science, Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment and Department of Physics, University of Oxford

Dame Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome DBE FRS
President, St John's College, Oxford

Professor Bradley Cairns FRS
Professor and Chair, Oncological Sciences, Spencer Eccles School of Medicine, University of Utah and Chief Academic Officer, Huntsman Cancer Institute, United States

Professor Keith Caldecott FMedSci FRS
Deputy Director, Genome Damage and Stability Centre, University of Sussex

Professor Sir Ian Chapman FRS
Chief Executive Officer, United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority

Professor Bryan Charleston FRS
Director and CEO, Pirbright Institute

Professor Sourav Chatterjee FRS
Professor of Statistics, Department of Statistics, and Professor of Mathematics, Department of Mathematics, Stanford University, United States

Professor Cathie Clarke FRS
Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics, Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge

Professor Pieter Cullis OC FRS
Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of British Columbia, Canada

Professor Andrew Davison FREng FRS
Professor of Robot Vision, Department of Computing, Imperial College London

Professor Michael Depledge CBE FRS
Emeritus Professor of Environment and Human Health, European Centre for Environment and Human Health, University of Exeter Medical School

Professor W Ford Doolittle FRS
Professor Emeritus, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University, Canada

Professor Michael Dustin FRS
Kennedy Trust Professor of Molecular Immunology, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences and Director of Research, Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, University of Oxford

Professor Wendy Freedman FRS
John and Marion Sullivan University Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Astronomy Department, University of Chicago, United States

Professor Huajian Gao FRS
Distinguished University Professor, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Professor Julian William Gardner FREng FRS
Professor of Electronic Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Warwick

Dame Sarah Gilbert DBE FMedSci FRS
Said Professor of Vaccinology, Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of Oxford

Professor Andrey Golutvin FRS
Professor of Physics, Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London

Professor Andrew Goodwin FRS
Professor of Materials Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford

Professor Louise Heathwaite CBE FRS
Lancaster Environment Centre and Pro-Vice-Chancellor Research and Enterprise, Lancaster University

Professor Laura Heyderman FRS
Professor, Mesoscopic Systems, ETH Zurich - Paul Scherrer Institute

Professor Andrew Hopkins FRS
Chief Executive, Exscientia plc

Professor John Hutchinson FRS
Professor of Evolutionary Biomechanics, Royal Veterinary College

Dr Michael Isard FRS
Research Scientist, Google, United States

Professor Christopher Jiggins FRS
Professor of Evolutionary Biology (2014), Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge

Professor David Jones FRS
Professor of Bioinformatics, Department of Computer Science and Division of Biosciences, University College London (UCL)

Dr Philip Jones FMedSci FRS
Senior Group Leader, Wellcome Sanger Institute and Professor of Cancer Development, University of Cambridge

Professor Loeske Kruuk FRS
Royal Society Research Professor, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh

Professor Mark Lancaster FRS
Professor of Particle Physics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester

Professor Ben Lehner FRS
Senior Group Leader, Wellcome Sanger Institute and Coordinator and ICREA Professor, Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Barcelona, Spain

Professor Simon L Lewis FRS
Chair, Global Change Science, University College London and Chair, Global Change Science, University of Leeds

Professor Allan Matthews FREng FRS
Professor of Surface Engineering and Tribology, The Henry Royce Institute, Department of Materials, University of Manchester

Professor James Maynard FRS
Professor of Number Theory, Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford

Professor Jane Memmott OBE FRS
Professor of Ecology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol

Professor R J Dwayne Miller FRS
University Professor, Departments of Chemistry and Physics, University of Toronto, Canada

Professor Valerie Mizrahi FRS
Director, Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Dr Graeme Moad AC FRS
CSIRO Fellow, CSIRO Manufacturing, Australia

Dr Madan Babu Mohan FMedSci FRS
Member, Endowed Chair and Director, Center of Excellence for Data Driven Discovery, Department of Structural Biology, St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, United States

Professor Robert Mokaya OBE FRS
Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Materials Chemistry, School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham

Professor Tebello Nyokong FRS
Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, and Department of Science and Innovation/National Research Foundation Research Chair, Rhodes University, South Africa

Dr Sarah O'Connor FRS
Director, Department of Natural Product Biosynthesis, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Germany

Professor Jane Parker FRS
Senior Research Group Leader, Department of Plant-Microbe Interactions, Max-Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Germany

Dr Lori Passmore FRS
Group Leader, Structural Studies Division, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Fellow, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge

Professor D Graham Pearson FRS
Canada Excellence Research Chair Laureate and Henry Marshall Tory Chair, Department of Earth and  Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Canada

Professor Peter Sewell FRS
Professor, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge

Professor Hanadi Sleiman FRS
Professor of Chemistry and Canada Research Chair in DNA Nanoscience, Department of Chemistry, McGill University, Canada

Professor Ivan Smith FRS
Professor of Geometry, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge

Professor Matthew Stephens FRS
Ralph W. Gerard Professor, Department of Statistics and Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, United States

Professor William Sutherland CBE FRS
Miriam Rothschild Chair of Conservation Biology, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge and Professorial Fellow, St Catharine’s College, Cambridge

Professor Elizabeth Thompson FRS
Professor Emerita of Statistics, Department of Statistics, University of Washington, United States

Professor Irene Tracey CBE FMedSci FRS
Vice-Chancellor, University of Oxford and Professor Anaesthetic Neuroscience, Nuffield Department Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford

Dr James Turner FMedSci FRS
Assistant Research Director, The Francis Crick Institute

Professor Derek Vance FRS
Professor of Geochemistry, Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Dr Rajeev Varshney FRS
Director, Centre for Crop and Food Innovation; Director, Western Australian State Agricultural Biotechnology Centre; and International Chair in Agriculture and Food Security, Food Futures Institute, Murdoch University, Australia

Professor Scott Waddell FMedSci FRS
Professor of Neurobiology, Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour, University of Oxford

Professor Philip Wadler FRS
Professor of Theoretical Computer Science, Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh

Sir Christopher Whitty KCB FMedSci FRS
Chief Medical Officer for England

New Honorary Fellows

Dame Kate Bingham FMedSci FRS
Managing Partner, SV Health Investors

Ms Fiona Fox FMedSci FRS
CEO, Science Media Centre

New Foreign Members

Professor Eva-Mari Aro ForMemRS
Research Director of Molecular Plant Biology, Department of Life Technologies, University of Turku, Finland

Professor Jeffery Dangl ForMemRS
John N. Couch Distinguished Professor, Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, United States and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, United States

Professor Stanislas Dehaene ForMemRS
Director, NeuroSpin Brain Imaging Center, CEA Saclay; Chair of Experimental Cognitive Psychology, Collège de France; and Director of the INSERM-CEA Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, France

Professor Odile Eisenstein ForMemRS
Emeritus CNRS-Université Montpellier, France and University Oslo, Norway

Professor Shafi Goldwasser ForMemRS
Director, Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, University of California, Berkeley, United States

Professor Douglas Hanahan ForMemRS
Distinguished Scholar, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Agora Translational Cancer Research Center, Lausanne, and Emeritus Professor and former Director, Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne

Professor Gerald Haug ForMemRS
Director, Department of Climate Geochemistry, Max-Planck-Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany; Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Zürich, Switzerland; and President, German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Germany

Professor Kristian Helin FMedSci ForMemRS
Chief Executive, President and Professor, The Institute of Cancer Research

Professor Kei Hirose ForMemRS
Professor, Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of Tokyo, Japan

Professor Yonggang Huang ForMemRS
Jan and Marcia Achenbach Professor in Mechanical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, United States

Professor Susumu Kitagawa ForMemRS
Deputy Director-General, Kyoto University Institute for Advanced Study (KUIAS), Japan

Professor Jinghai Li ForMemRS
Professor, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Former President of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and former Vice President of International Science Council

Professor Edvard Moser ForMemRS
Professor of Neuroscience, Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

Professor May-Britt Moser ForMemRS
Professor of Neuroscience, Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

Professor Subir Sachdev ForMemRS
Herchel Smith Professor of Physics, Department of Physics, Harvard University, United States

Professor Yoshinori Tokura ForMemRS
Center Director, RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science, Japan and University Distinguished Professor, The University of Tokyo, Japan

Professor Karen Uhlenbeck ForMemRS
Distinguished Visiting Professor, Institute for Advanced Study, United States

Professor Ronald Vale ForMemRS
Executive Director, Janelia Research Campus and Vice President Howard Hughes Medical Institute, United States

Professor Moshe Y Vardi ForMemRS
University Professor and George Distinguished Service Professor in Computational Engineering, Department of Computer Science, Rice University, United States