The Bakerian Medal is one of the premier medals of the Royal Society that recognizes exceptional and outstanding science. It comes with a medal award and a prize lecture. The medalist is required to give a lecture on any topic related to physical sciences. It is awarded annually to an individual in a field of the physical sciences, including computer science.
History The prize was started in 1774, when Henry Baker left £100 to establish a spoken lecture given by a Fellow of the Royal Society about natural history or experimental philosophy.
Awardees Source:
21st century 2026 John A. Rogers, for foundational scientific and engineering contributions to the field of bioelectronics 2025 Ingrid Daubechies, for her outstanding work on wavelets and image compression and her exceptional contributions to a wide spectrum of physical, technological, and mathematical applications 2024 Michele Dougherty, for her scientific leadership of the Cassini magnetic field instrument at Saturn, seminal research findings on potential life support on Enceladus and leadership of forthcoming missions to probe Jupiter’s icy moons 2023 Andrew Zisserman, for research on computational theory and commercial systems for geometrical analysis of images, and for being a pioneer and leading scientist in machine learning for vision, especially image recognition 2022 Michelle Simmons, for seminal contributions to our understanding of nature at the atomic-scale by creating a sequence of world-first quantum electronic devices in which individual atoms control device behaviour 2021 Victoria Kaspi, for her research focused on neutron stars and their utility for constraining basic physics 2020 Sir James Hough, for his world-leading work on suspensions systems for the test masses used in laser interferometry, pivotal to the successful detection of gravitational waves. 2019 Edward Hinds, for his achievements in controlling individual atoms, molecules and photons. 2018 Susan Solomon, her contributions in atmospheric science especially on polar ozone depletion. 2017 Andrew Hopper, for his work in computer networking and sentient computing systems. 2016 Andrea Ghez, "The monster at the heart of our galaxy" 2015 John Ellis, "The Long Road to the Higgs Boson—and Beyond" 2014 Lynn Gladden, "It’s magnetic resonance—but not as you know it" 2013 David Leigh, "Making the tiniest machines" 2012 Peter Edwards, "Metals and the conducting and superconducting states of matter" 2011 Herbert Huppert, "Carbon storage: caught between a rock and climate change" 2010 Donal Bradley, "Plastic electronics: their science and applications" 2009 James Murray, "Mathematics in the real world: From brain tumours to saving marriages". 2008 Robin Clark, "Raman microscopy, pigments and the arts/science interface" 2007 Joseph Silk, "The dark side of the Universe" 2006 Athene Donald, "The mesoscopic world - from plastic bags to brain disease - structural similarities in physics" 2005 John Pendry, "Negative refraction, the perfect lens and metamaterials" 2004 Michael Pepper, "Semiconductor nanostructures and new quantum effects" 2003 Christopher Dobson, "Protein folding and misfolding: from theory to therapy" 2002 Arnold Wolfendale, "Cosmic rays: what are they and where do they come from?" 2001 David Sherrington, "Magnets, microchips, memories and markets: statistical physics of complex systems".
20th century 2000 Steve Sparks, "How volcanoes work". 1999 Peter Day, "The molecular chemistry of magnets and superconductors". 1998 Richard Ellis, "The morphological evolution of the galaxies". 1997 Steven Ley, "Sweet dreams: new strategies for oligosaccharide assembly". 1996 A. Ian Scott, "Genetically engineered synthesis of natural products". 1995 Anthony Kelly, "Composites, towards intelligent materials design". 1994 John Polanyi, "Photochemistry in the adsorbed state, using light as a scalpel and a crystal as an operating table". 1993 Hans Bethe, "Mechanism of supernovae". 1992 Thomas Benjamin, "The mystery of vortex breakdown". 1991 John Houghton, "The predictability of weather and climate". 1990 John Meurig Thomas, "New microcrystalline catalysts". 1989 Jack Lewis, "Cluster compounds, a new aspect of inorganic chemistry". 1988 Walter Eric Spear, "Amorphous semiconductors, a new generation of electronic materials". 1987 Michael Victor Berry, "The semiclassical chaology of quantum eigenvalues". 1986 Walter Heinrich Munk, "Ships from space" (paper) and "Acoustic monitoring of ocean gyres" (talk). 1985 Carlo Rubbia, "Unification of the electromagnetic and weak forces". 1984 Alan Rushton Battersby, "Biosynthesis of the pigments of life". 1983 Alfred Edward Ringwood, "The Earth's core: its composition, formation and bearing upon the origin of the earth". 1982 Martin John Rees, "Galaxies and their nuclei". 1981 Robert Joseph Paton Williams, "Natural selection of the chemical elements". 1980 Abdus Salam, "Gauge unification of fundamental forces". 1979 Michael Ellis Fisher, "Multicritical points in magnets and fluids: a review of some novel states of matter. " 1978 Robert Lewis Fullarton Boyd, "Cosmic exploration by X-rays". 1977 George Porter, "In vitro models for photosynthesis". 1976 George Wallace Kenner, "Towards synthesis of proteins". 1975 Michael Francis Atiyah, "Global geometry". 1974 Desmond George King-Hele, "A view of Earth and air". 1973 Frederick Charles Frank, "Crystals imperfect". 1972 Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin, "Insulin". 1971 Basil John Mason, "The physics of the thunderstorm". 1970 Derek Harold Richard Barton, "Some approaches to the synthesis of tetracycline". 1969 Richard Henry Dalitz, "Particles and interactions: the problems of high-energy physics" 1968 Fred Hoyle, "Review of recent developments in cosmology" 1967 Edward Crisp Bullard, "Reversals of the Earth's magnetic field" 1966 Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, "The progress of photochemistry exemplified by reactions of the halogens" 1965 Melvin Calvin, "Chemical evolution" 1964 Frederic Calland Williams, "Inventive technology: the search for better electric machines" 1963 Alan Howard Cottrell, "Fracture" 1962 John Desmond Bernal, "The structure of liquids" 1961 Michael James Lighthill, "Sound generated aerodynamically" 1960 Gerhard Herzberg, "The spectra and structures of free methyl and free methylene". 1959 Edmund Langley Hirst, "Molecular structure in the polysaccharide group". 1958 Martin Ryle, "The nature of the cosmic radio sources". 1957 Cecil Frank Powell, "The elementary particles". 1956 Harry Work Melville, "Addition polymerization". 1955 Marcus Laurence Elwin Oliphant, "The acceleration of charged particles to very high energies". 1954 Alexander Robertus Todd, "Chemistry of the nucleotides". 1953 Nevill Francis Mott, "Dislocations, plastic flow and creep in metals". 1952 Harold Jeffreys, "The origin of the solar system". 1951 Eric Keightley Rideal, "Reactions in monolayers". 1950 Percy Williams Bridgman, "Physics above 20 000 kg/cm2". 1949 Harold Raistrick, "A region of biosynthesis". 1948 George Paget Thomson, "Nuclear explosions". 1947 Harry Ralph Ricardo, "Some problems in connexion with the development of a high-speed diesel engine". 1946 Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, "The more recent work on the hydrogen-oxygen reaction". 1945 Gordon Miller Bourne Dobson, "Meteorology of the lower stratosphere". 1944 Walter Norman Haworth, "The structure, function and synthesis of polysaccharides". 1943 Richard Vynne Southwell, "Relaxation methods: a mathematics for engineering sciences". 1942 Albert Charles Chibnall, "Amino-acid analysis and the structure of proteins". 1941 Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, "The physical interpretation of quantum mechanics". 1940 Nevil Vincent Sidgwick & Herbert Marcus Powell, "Stereochemical types and valency groups". 1939 Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett, "Penetrating Cosmic Rays". 1938 Christopher Kelk Ingold, "The Structure of Benzene". 1937 Edward Victor Appleton, "Regularities and Irregularities in the Ionosphere". 1936 Frederic Stanley Kipping, "Organic Compounds of Silicon". 1935 Ralph Howard Fowler, "The Anomalous Specific Heats of Crystals, with special reference to the Contribution of Molecular Rotations". 1934 William Lawrence Bragg, "The Structure of Alloys". 1933 James Chadwick, "The Neutron". 1932 William Arthur Bone, "The Combustion of Hydrocarbons". 1931 Sydney Chapman, "Some Phenomena of the Upper Atmosphere". 1930 Robert Robinson, "The Molecular Structure of Strychnine and Brucine". 1929 Edward Arthur Milne, "The Structure and Opacity of a Stellar Atmosphere". 1928 John Cunningham McLennan, "The Aurora and its Spectrum". 1927 Francis William Aston, "A New Mass-Spectrograph and the Whole Number Rule". 1926 Arthur Stanley Eddington, "Diffuse Matter in Interstellar Space". 1925 William Bate Hardy & ," Boundary Lubrication - Plane Surfaces and the Limitations of Amontons Law". 1924 Alfred Fowler, "The Spectra of Silicon at Successive Stages of Ionization". 1923 Geoffrey Ingram Taylor & Constance F. Elam, "The Distortion of an Aluminium Crystal during a Tensile Test". 1922 Thomas Ralph Merton & , "On the Spectrum of Hydrogen". 1921 Thomas Martin Lowry & , "Optical Rotatory Dispersion. Part II. Tartaric Acid and the Tartrates". 1920 Ernest Rutherford, "Nuclear Constitution of Atoms". 1919 Robert John Strutt, "A Study of the Line Spectrum of Sodium as Excited by Fluorescence". 1918 Charles Algernon Parsons, "Experiments on the Artificial Production of Diamond". 1917 James Hopwood Jeans, "The Configurations of Rotating Compressible Masses". 1916 Charles Glover Barkla, "X-rays and the Theory of Radiation". 1915 William Henry Bragg, "X-rays and Crystals". 1914 Alfred Fowler, "Series Lines in Spark Spectra". 1913 Joseph John Thomson, "Rays of Positive Electricity". 1912 Hugh Longbourne Callendar, "On the Variation of the Specific Heat of Water, with Experiments by a new Method". 1911 Robert John Strutt, "A Chemically-Active Modification of Nitrogen Produced by the Electric Discharge". 1910 John Henry Poynting & , "The Pressure of Light against the Source: the Recoil from Light". 1909 Joseph Larmor, "On the Statistical and Thermo-dynamical Relations of Radiant Energy". 1908 Charles Herbert Lees, "The Effects of Temperature and Pressure on the Thermal Conductivities of Solids". 1907 Thomas Edward Thorpe, "The Atomic Weight of Radium". 1906 John Milne, "Recent Advances in Seismology". 1905 Horace Tabberer Brown, "The Reception and Utilization of Energy by the Green Leaf". 1904 Ernest Rutherford, "The Succession of Changes in Radio-active Bodies". 1903 Charles Thomas Heycock & Francis Henry Neville, "On the Constitution of the Copper-tin Series of Alloys". 1902 Lord Rayleigh," On the Law of the Pressure of Gases between 75 and 150 Millimetres of Mercury". 1901 James Dewar, "The Nadir of Temperature and Allied Problems". 1900 William Augustus Tilden, "On the Specific Heat of Metals and the Relation of Specific Heat to Atomic Weight".
19th century 1899 James Alfred Ewing & Walter Rosenhain, "The Crystalline Structure of Metals". 1898 William James Russell, "Further Experiments on the Action exerted by certain Metals and other Bodies on a Photographic Plate". 1897 Osborne Reynolds & , "On the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat". 1896 William Chandler Roberts-Austen, "On the Diffusion of Metals". 1895 Augustus George Vernon Harcourt & William Esson, "On the Laws of Connexion between the Conditions of a Chemical Change and its Amount. III. Further Researches on the Reaction of Hydrogen Dioxide and Hydrogen Iodide". 1894 Thomas Edward Thorpe & , "On the Relations between the Viscosity of Liquids and their Chemical Nature". 1893 Harold Baily Dixon, "The rate of Explosion in Gases". 1892 James Thomson, "On the Grand Currents of Atmospheric Circulation". 1891 George Howard Darwin, "On Tidal Prediction".