Invisibility cloak pioneer Sir John Pendry awarded Royal Society’s top prize

The father of metamaterials and ‘invisibility cloak’ pioneer, Professor Sir John Pendry FRS, has been awarded the world’s oldest scientific prize, the Royal Society’s Copley Medal.

He is recognised for his work on the concept and designs of metamaterials that represent the greatest advance in electromagnetism since Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell.

He is among 27 Royal Society medal and award winners announced today for their outstanding contributions to scientific discovery, public engagement and research culture.

Sir John, Chair in Theoretical Solid State Physics at Imperial College London, said:

“I am honoured to be receiving this award. It is a privilege to pursue unanswered questions, and that this work has captured imaginations, and spurred further interest is reward in itself.

“Showcasing our work to a public audience is one of the most important aspects of a major prize like this. The public pays for most of the science we do, and it is our duty as scientists to let the public know what they are getting for their money.”

The Copley Medal is the Royal Society’s most prestigious prize, awarded for sustained, outstanding achievements in any field of science. It was first awarded in 1731 and previous recipients include Louis Pasteur, Dorothy Hodgkin, Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking and Charles Darwin. The medal is accompanied by a gift of £25,000.

This year also sees the Royal Society’s new Environment Medal and Lecture awarded for the first time. The inaugural medal is awarded to Professor Andrew Balmford FRS, for groundbreaking contributions to conservation science, having built transformative partnerships and redefining the landscape of conservation education.

Other recipients this year include Professor Clare Burrage, who receives the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award and Lecture for her achievements in theoretical cosmology and her proposed project which aims to inspire and engage girls of all ages with physics.

The Royal Society Hauksbee Award recognises those whose scientific contributions take place ‘behind the scenes’ including technicians and research office staff. This year it goes to The Demonstrations Team at the Royal Institution for being global leaders in spectacular science demonstrations, which are vitally important for effective education and communication of scientific concepts.

Sir Adrian Smith, President of the Royal Society, said: “The recipients of this year’s medals and awards have all made outstanding contributions to science and its applications for the benefit of humanity.

“They have done so by furthering our understanding of the processes that govern the world around us, changing the practices of academia to build a more robust and inclusive research environment, and engaging new audiences.

“Celebrating these diverse contributions is core to the Society’s mission and I offer my congratulations to all the 2025 recipients.”

The full list of 2025 winners

Premier Awards

Copley Medal

Sir John Pendry FRS, Imperial College London, for work on the concept and designs of metamaterials that represent the greatest advance in electromagnetism since Faraday and Maxwell.

Bakerian Medal and Lecture

Professor John Rogers FRS, Northwestern University, for foundational scientific and engineering contributions to the field of bioelectronics.

Croonian Medal and Lecture

Professor David Baker, University of Washington, for pioneering the design of completely new proteins as well as playing key roles in the development of protein structure prediction and protein engineering tools.

Royal Medal (Physical)

Professor Matthew Rosseinsky OBE FRS, University of Liverpool, for pioneering contributions to the design and discovery of materials, changing our understanding of synthesis to create function with digital tools.

Royal Medal (Biological)

Professor Susanne von Caemmerer FRS and Professor Graham Farquhar AO FRS, Australian National University, for refining the ways we monitor and model photosynthesis in leaves from molecular to global scales.

Royal Medal (Applied)

Professor Anthony Davis, University of Bristol, for inventing a glucose-binding molecule with exceptional capabilities and working towards applications via start-up companies Ziylo and Carbometrics.

Prize Lectures

Francis Crick Medal and Lecture

Professor Kayla King, University of British Columbia and University of Oxford, for contributions to the fields of evolutionary biology and genetics of infectious disease.

Royal Society Rising Star Africa Prize

Professor James Chibueze, University of South Africa, for work on advancing African astronomy through pioneering research, capacity building, and international collaborations.

Royal Society Africa Prize

Professor Ara Monadjem, University of Pretoria, for unwavering dedication to African biodiversity research and conservation.

Milner Award and Lecture

Professor Johan Håstad, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, for the sustained and transformational impact in multiple fields, including circuit complexity, cryptography, parallel computing and approximate optimisation.

Environment Medal and Lecture

Professor Andrew Balmford FRS, University of Cambridge, for groundbreaking contributions to conservation science, having built transformative partnerships and redefining the landscape of conservation education.

Leeuwenhoek Medal and Lecture

Sir Michael Ferguson CBE FMedSci FRS, University of Dundee, for major contributions in discovery science and application to the treatment of neglected infectious diseases.

Clifford Paterson Medal and Lecture

Professor Philipp Kukura FRS, University of Oxford, for pioneering and democratising mass photometry, a novel means of mass measurement for single biomolecules.

Michael Faraday Prize and Lecture

Professor Michael Wooldridge, University of Oxford, for award-winning work as a leading researcher, educator and commentator in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) whose popular science books, lectures and media appearances have informed millions.

Royal Society David Attenborough Award and Lecture

Dr Roger Highfield OBE FMedSci, Science Museums Group, for vast contribution to public engagement, reaching audiences of millions as a journalist, broadcaster and author, and through museum-led initiatives.

Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Medal and Lecture

Professor Sadiah Qureshi, University of Manchester, for the distinguished and internationally-recognised specialism in subjects related to science, race and empire, and the recent timely publication on extinction in the natural world as a relatively modern concept.

Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award and Lecture

Professor Clare Burrage, University of Nottingham, for her achievements in theoretical cosmology and her proposed project which aims to inspire and engage girls of all ages with physics.

Awards

Buchanan Medal

Sir Rory Edwards Collins FRS, University of Oxford, for leading practice altering cardiovascular clinical trials and leading the UK Biobank.

Darwin Medal

Professor Andrew Rambaut FRS, University of Edinburgh, for the development of the state-of-the-art methodologies for tracking the epidemiology and evolution of viruses, and their application to the west African Ebola outbreak, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Royal Society Research Culture Award

Dr Richard Sever and Dr John Inglis, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, for contributions to improving the scientific system and changing the culture of scientific publishing, through the development of the first preprint servers for the life sciences and medicine.

Hauksbee Award

The Demonstrations Team at the Royal Institution for being global leaders in spectacular science demonstrations, which are vitally important for effective education and communication of scientific concepts.

Davy Medal

Professor Andrew Cooper FRS, University of Liverpool, for creating innovative digital approaches to chemistry that combine first-principles computational chemistry, autonomous robots and artificial intelligence.

Gabor Medal

Professor Pearse Andrew Keane, UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, for pioneering, developing and facilitating retinal image analysis using artificial intelligence for diagnosis of ocular and systemic disorders.

Rumford Medal

Professor Bernard Schutz FRS, Cardiff University, for contributions to relativistic astrophysics, the detection of gravitational radiation and education.

Sylvester Medal

Professor Martin Hairer FRS, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and Imperial College London, for profound contributions to the fields of probability and analysis, as one of the leading figures in stochastic partial differential equations.

Mullard Award

Professor Jason Hallett, Imperial College London, for pioneering work on the development of ionic liquids as commercially relevant solvents in biorefining and the circular economy.

Leverhulme Medal

Dr Michael Thackeray FRS, Argonne National Laboratory, for contributions to the development of the lithium-ion battery, particularly for his invention of the NMC cathode, the dominant lithium-ion battery technology.

The full list of medals and awards, including their description and past winners can be found on the Royal Society website.