The Copley Medal awarded to George Stokes in 1893 (obverse)
Awarded for
Outstanding research in any branch of science
Sponsored by
Royal Society
Country
United Kingdom
First awarded
1731; 293 years ago (1731)
Website
Copley Medal
Reverse
Precedence
Next (lower)
Bakerian Medal (physical sciences)[1] Croonian Medal (biological sciences)[1]
The Copley Medal is the most prestigious award of the Royal Society, conferred "for sustained, outstanding achievements in any field of science".[2] It alternates between the physical sciences or mathematics and the biological sciences.[3] Given annually, the medal is the oldest Royal Society medal awarded and the oldest surviving scientific award in the world,[2] having first been given in 1731 to Stephen Gray, for "his new Electrical Experiments: – as an encouragement to him for the readiness he has always shown in obliging the Society with his discoveries and improvements in this part of Natural Knowledge".[4] The medal is made of silver-gilt and awarded with a £25,000 prize.[3][5]
The Copley Medal is arguably the highest British and Commonwealth award for scientific achievement,[1][6] and has been included among the most distinguished international scientific awards.[7] It is awarded to "senior scientists" irrespective of nationality, and nominations are considered over three nomination cycles. Since 2022, scientific teams or research groups are collectively eligible to receive the medal;[2] that year, the research team which developed the Oxford–AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine became the first collective recipient. John Theophilus Desaguliers has won the medal the most often, winning three times, in 1734, 1736 and 1741. In 1976, Dorothy Hodgkin became the first female recipient; Jocelyn Bell Burnell, in 2021, became the second.
^ abc"The Royal Society Medals and Awards: Nomination guidance" (PDF). The Royal Society. 2024. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
^ abc"Copley Medal". royalsociety.org. The Royal Society. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
^ ab"The Copley Medal (1731)". royalsociety.org. The Royal Society. Archived from the original on 15 December 2005. Retrieved 5 February 2009.
^"Copley archive winners 1799–1731". royalsociety.org. The Royal Society. Archived from the original on 11 January 2008. Retrieved 5 February 2009.
^"Copley winners that changed the world". blogs.royalsociety.org. The Royal Society. 18 May 2016. Archived from the original on 18 February 2018. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
^Cahan, David (2012). "The awarding of the Copley Medal and the 'discovery' of the law of conservation of energy: Joule, Mayer and Helmholtz revisited". Notes and Records of the Royal Society. 66 (2): 125–139. doi:10.1098/rsnr.2011.0045. S2CID 145488912.
^Ma, Yifang; Uzzi, Brian (December 10, 2018). "Scientific prize network predicts who pushes the boundaries of science". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115 (50): 12608–12615. arXiv:1808.09412. Bibcode:2018PNAS..11512608M. doi:10.1073/pnas.1800485115. PMC 6294901. PMID 30530666.
The CopleyMedal is the most prestigious award of the Royal Society, conferred "for sustained, outstanding achievements in any field of science". It alternates...
Copley may refer to: Copley (surname) Copley, South Australia Copley, County Durham Copley, Greater Manchester, formerly in Cheshire Copley Academy, a...
100 Greatest Britons. He was awarded the CopleyMedal from the Royal Society (2006), the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is America's highest civilian...
Council of the Royal Society "were moved to reward its discoverer with the CopleyMedal" at the anniversary meeting of the Royal Society on 30 November 1773...
brought Darwin Britain's highest scientific honour, the Royal Society's CopleyMedal, awarded on 3 November 1864. That day, Huxley held the first meeting...
Last Theorem, for which he was awarded the 2016 Abel Prize and the 2017 CopleyMedal and for which he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the...
recognition of his work with electricity, he received the Royal Society's CopleyMedal in 1753, and in 1756, he became one of the few 18th-century Americans...
Rumford Medal (1880) Valz Prize (1882) Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (1883) Janssen Medal (1888) CopleyMedal (1898) Henry Draper Medal from...
Science prize in 1823 for "his study of angle-preserving maps", and the CopleyMedal from the Royal Society in 1838 for "his inventions and mathematical researches...
became the second female recipient (after Dorothy Hodgkin in 1976) of the CopleyMedal. Bell Burnell was born in Lurgan, Northern Ireland, to M. Allison and...
American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1834 he was awarded with the CopleyMedal by the Royal Society for his studies on lunar motion. Charles Babbage...
elevation directed towards the Earth (ib. xxiv. 29). He was awarded the CopleyMedal by the Royal Society in 1850, and his Solar Tables, compiled with the...
the Royal Society in 1916, awarded the Royal Medal in 1929, the Sylvester Medal in 1943, and the CopleyMedal in 1958. He was president of the London Mathematical...
Prize, he received the Hughes Medal in 1921, the Matteucci Medal in 1923, the Franklin Medal in 1926, the CopleyMedal in 1938, the Order of the Elephant...
a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. He won the CopleyMedal in 1817 and the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1831. He is considered...
National Academy of Sciences in 1908, was awarded the Royal Society's CopleyMedal in 1915, and elected an International Member of the American Philosophical...
was eventually recognized by the Royal Society with its award of the CopleyMedal in 1841. He became a foreign member of the Royal Society in 1842, and...
include: The IET Faraday Medal The Royal Society of London Michael Faraday Prize The Institute of Physics Michael Faraday Medal and Prize The Royal Society...
London in 1868 and received its CopleyMedal in 1879. Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1878. Huygens Medal in 1870. Foreign Member of the...
Physics; a unique Higgs Medal from the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2012; and the Royal Society awarded him the 2015 CopleyMedal, the world's oldest scientific...
highest honor awarded by the international scientific community, the CopleyMedal of the Royal Society of London, "for his contributions to mathematical...
Arthur Noble Medal from the City of Pasadena 1927 Franklin Medal from the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia 1932 Sir Godfrey CopleyMedal from the Royal...
Admiralty; he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society and awarded the Copley Gold Medal for completing his second voyage without losing a man to scurvy. Nathaniel...
Verrier the Copleymedal in 1846 for his achievement, without mention of Adams. The Royal Society, however, also awarded Adams the Copleymedal in 1848....
June 1877 and bestowed their Rumford (1894), Davy (1909), and CopleyMedal (1916) medals upon him for his work, as well as inviting him to deliver their...
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