The Copley Medal is the most prestigious award of the Royal Society of the United Kingdom, conferred "for sustained, outstanding achievements in any field of science". The award alternates between the physical sciences or mathematics and the biological sciences. It is widely considered the highest British and Commonwealth award for scientific merit and achievement, and has regularly been included among the most distinguished international scientific awards. Due to its historic significance, the Copley Medal has often been viewed as a predecessor to the Nobel Prize.
Given annually, the medal is the oldest Royal Society medal awarded and the oldest surviving scientific award in the world, 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". The medal is made of silver-gilt and awarded with a £25,000 prize.
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; 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.
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History In 1709, Sir Godfrey Copley, the MP for Thirsk, bequeathed Abraham Hill and Hans Sloane £100 (roughly equivalent to £ in ) 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". After the legacy had been received the following year, the interest of £5 was duly used to provide recurring grants for experimental work to researchers associated with the Royal Society, provided they registered their research within a stipulated period and demonstrated their experiments at an annual meeting. In 1726, following a proposal by Sloane, the grants were extended to "strangers" unaffiliated with the Society to encourage "new and useful experiments", though it was only five years later that Stephen Gray became the first such recipient. Prior to Gray, John Theophilus Desaguliers was apparently the only recipient of the grant, but had not always conducted the required annual demonstration.
In November 1736, Martin Folkes, then vice-president of the Society, suggested the Copley grant be converted to "a medal or other honorary prize to be bestowed on the person whose experiment should be best approved...a laudable emulation might be excited among men of genius to try their invention, who in all probability may never be moved for the sake of lucre". On 7 December 1736, the Council of the Royal Society agreed to Folkes' proposal, passing a resolution that the annual Copley grant of five pounds (roughly equivalent to £ in ) be converted to a gold medal "of the same Value, with the Arms of the Society impress’d on it", to be gifted "for the best Experiment produced within the Year, and bestowed in such a manner as to avoid any Envy or Disgust in Rivalship". John Belchier was the first to receive the new award in 1737; due to delays in approving a medal design, however, the medal, designed and struck by John Sigismund Tanner of the Royal Mint, was only presented to Belchier in 1742. Gray and Desaguliers received their medals retrospectively.
Into the early 19th century, medal recipients were selected by the President of the Royal Society, though not always on the basis of publications and experimental demonstrations; political and social connections were also key considerations, along with service in the general interests of the Society. During the long presidency of Joseph Banks, the medal was frequently awarded to recipients whose researches were of a practical or technical nature, involving improvements to scientific equipment or instrument design. In 1831, new regulations adopted by the Royal Society Council made the medal an annual award, dropped the requirement for conducting the qualifying research within a certain period and officially opened it to scientists from any nation; although the medal had previously been awarded to foreign scientists including Alessandro Volta, the majority of recipients had been British subjects. A second donation of £1666 13s. 4d. (roughly equivalent to £ in ) was made by Sir Joseph William Copley in 1881, and the interest from that amount is used to pay for the medal.
Prestige of the medal By the 1840s, the Copley Medal had achieved international prestige; in 1850, George Airy noted the distinction of the medal was that it was "offered to the competition of the world". The Copley medal has been characterised as a predecessor to the Nobel Prize. Since its inception, it has been awarded to many distinguished scientists, including 62 winners of the Nobel Prize: 19 in Physics, 22 in Physiology or Medicine and 21 in Chemistry.
Medal recipients YearImageNameRationaleNotes1731 "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"1732 "For the Experiments he made for the year 1732"1733 No Award——1734 "In consideration of his several Experiments performed before the Society"1735 No Award——1736 "For his experiments made during the year"1737 "For his Experiment to show the property of a Diet of Madder Root in dyeing the Bones of living animals of a red colour"1738 "For his invention of an Engine for driving the Piles to make a Foundation for the Bridge to be erected at Westminster, the Model whereof had been shown to the Society"—1739 "For his Experiments towards the Discovery of Medicines for dissolving the Stone; and Preservatives for keeping Meat in long voyages at Sea"1740 "For his Lectures on Muscular Motion. As a further addition for his services to the Society in the care and pains he has taken therein"1741 "For his Experiments towards the discovery of the properties of Electricity. As an addition to his allowance (as Curator) for the present year."1742 "For the communication of his Observations in the attempt of discovering a North-West passage to the East Indies through Hudsons Bay"1743 "For his Experiments on the Polypus"—1744 "For his curious Experiments relating to the Crystallization or Configuration of the minute particles of Saline Bodies dissolved in a menstruum"1745 "On account of the surprising discoveries in the phenomena of Electricity, exhibited in his late Experiments"1746 "On account of his curious Experiments for showing the resistance of the Air, and his rules for establishing his doctrine thereon for the motion of Projectiles"1747 "On account of several very curious Experiments exhibited by him, both with Natural and Artificial Magnets"1748 "On account of his very curious and wonderful discoveries in the apparent motion of the Fixed Stars, and the causes of such apparent motion"1749 "On account of those very curious Instruments, invented and made by him, for the exact mensuration of Time"1750 "On account of a very curious Book lately published by him, and intiyled, A Natural History of Birds, &c. – containing the Figures elegantly drawn, and illuminated in their proper colours, of 209 different Birds, and about 20 very rare Quadrupeds, Serpents, Fishes, and Insects."1751 "On account of his communicating to the Society, and exhibiting before them, his curious method of making Artificial Magnets without the use of Natural ones"1752 Sir John Pringle, 1st Baronet"On account of his very curious and useful Experiments and Observations on Septic and Anti-septic Substances, communicated to the Society"1753 "On account of his curious Experiments and Observations on Electricity"1754 "For the many Experiments made by him on Platina, which tend to the discovery of the sophistication of gold: – which he would have entirely completed, but was obliged to put a stop to his further enquiries for want of materials"1755 "For his many useful Experiments on Antimony, of which an account had been read to the Society"1756 No Award——1757 "On account of his very curious and useful invention of making Thermometers, showing respectively the greatest degrees of heat and cold which have happened at any time during the absence of the observer"1758 "On account of his curious Experiments and Discoveries concerning the different refrangibility of the Rays of Light, communicated to the Society"1759 "On account of his curious Experiments concerning Water-wheels and Wind-mill Sails, communicated to the Society. For his experimental enquiry concerning the powers of water and wind in the moving of Mills"1760 "For his many curious Experiments in Electricity, communicated to the Society within the year"1761 No Award——1762 No Award——1763 No Award——1764 "For his very ingenious and elegant Experiments in the Air Pump and Condensing Engine, to prove the Compressibility of Water, and some other Fluids"1765 No Award——1766 , Edward Delaval and
Henry Cavendish"For an experimental enquiry into the Mineral Elastic Spirit, or Air, contained in Spa-Water; as well as into the Mephitic qualities of this Spirit. (Brownrigg)" "For his Experiments and Observations on the agreement between the specific gravities of the several Metals, and their colours when united to glass, as well as those of their other preparations. (Delaval)"