Copley Medal

• 1. Introduction

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  The Copley Medal has been given to scientists since 1731, making it the oldest surviving scientific award in the world. Its first recipient was Stephen Gray, honored for what the Royal Society called "his new Electrical Experiments" and his readiness in sharing discoveries with the world. By the time the Nobel Prize was created nearly two centuries later, the Copley Medal was already so established that many have viewed it as a kind of forerunner to the Nobel itself. Sixty-two of its recipients would go on to win a Nobel Prize. Nineteen of those were in Physics, twenty-two in Physiology or Medicine, and twenty-one in Chemistry. How did a bequest from a country Member of Parliament turn into the highest British and Commonwealth award for scientific achievement? And who was left out, kept waiting, or changed the rules entirely?

• 2. Godfrey Copley's Bequest

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  Sir Godfrey Copley was the Member of Parliament for Thirsk, and in 1709 he left one hundred pounds to Abraham Hill and Hans Sloane, to be held in trust for the Royal Society "for improving natural knowledge to be laid out in experiments or otherwise for the benefit thereof as they shall direct and appoint". The legacy was received the following year. From that point, the interest of five pounds per year was used to fund recurring grants for experimental work. Researchers associated with the Society could apply, provided they registered their research within a set period and demonstrated their experiments at an annual meeting. In 1726, following a proposal by Sloane himself, the grants were extended to "strangers" unaffiliated with the Society, in order to encourage "new and useful experiments". It would take another five years before anyone outside the Society's circle became a recipient.

• 3. From Grant to Medal

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  Martin Folkes, then vice-president of the Royal Society, raised the idea in November 1736. He proposed that the annual Copley grant be converted into "a medal or other honorary prize to be bestowed on the person whose experiment should be best approved", arguing that such recognition might inspire men of genius who would never be moved "for the sake of lucre". On the 7th of December 1736, the Council agreed, resolving to replace the five-pound grant with a gold medal of equivalent value, bearing the arms of the Society, to be awarded for the best experiment of the year. John Belchier was the first to receive the new award in 1737. Due to delays approving the medal design, however, Belchier was not actually presented with his medal until 1742. The medal itself was designed and struck by John Sigismund Tanner of the Royal Mint. Gray and Desaguliers, who had received grants before the medal existed, were given their medals retrospectively.

• 4. Politics, Presidents, and Reform

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  Into the early nineteenth century, the President of the Royal Society personally selected medal recipients, and merit alone was not always the deciding factor. Political and social connections carried weight, as did service to the Society's general interests. During the long presidency of Joseph Banks, the medal frequently went to scientists whose work was practical or technical, rewarding improvements to scientific equipment and instrument design rather than fundamental discoveries. Change came in 1831, when the Royal Society Council adopted new regulations. The medal became a formally annual award, the requirement to conduct qualifying research within a set period was dropped, and the award was officially opened to scientists of any nation. Foreign scientists had already received it before this point, including Alessandro Volta, but the majority of earlier recipients had been British subjects. A second financial donation arrived in 1881, when Sir Joseph William Copley gave one thousand six hundred and sixty-six pounds, thirteen shillings and fourpence; the interest from that sum pays for the medal to this day.

• 5. Who Wins, and How

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  John Theophilus Desaguliers holds the record for most Copley Medal wins, having received it three times: in 1734, 1736, and 1741. The medal is awarded to senior scientists irrespective of nationality, and nominations are reviewed over three nomination cycles before a decision is reached. Until recently, the award went to individuals only. In 2022, the rules changed to allow scientific teams or research groups to receive the medal collectively. That same year, the research team which developed the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine became the first collective recipient. The award alternates between the physical sciences or mathematics and the biological sciences. It is made of silver-gilt and carries a prize of twenty-five thousand pounds.

• 6. Breaking Barriers

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  Dorothy Hodgkin was recognized in 1976, becoming the first woman to receive the Copley Medal. Her citation noted her outstanding work on the structures of complex molecules, particularly penicillin, vitamin B12, and insulin. Nearly half a century passed before a second woman was honored. Jocelyn Bell Burnell received the medal in 2021 for her work on the discovery of pulsars, described by the Society as one of the major astronomical discoveries of the twentieth century. The 1850 observation by George Airy, that the medal's distinction lay in being "offered to the competition of the world", took well over a century to be reflected in the gender of its recipients.

• 7. A Roll Call of Discovery

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  The record of Copley Medal recipients reads as a compressed history of science itself. Charles Darwin received the award in 1908 for his part in developing the theory of the origin of species by natural selection. Albert Einstein was honored in 1925 for his theory of relativity and his contributions to the quantum theory. Michael Faraday appears twice in the record: in 1832 for his discovery of magneto-electricity, and again in 1838 for his researches in specific electrical induction. Francis Crick received the medal in 1975 for his elucidation of the structure of DNA. Andrew Wiles was recognized in 2017 for his proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, described in the citation as one of the most important mathematical achievements of the twentieth century. The 2025 medal was awarded for work on the concept and designs of metamaterials, hailed as the greatest advance in electromagnetism since Faraday and Maxwell, connecting the newest recipients directly back to one of the earliest.