Only up to 60 people a year join the Royal Society's fellowship
Each spring, from roughly 700 nominees, the Royal Society elects at most 60 new fellows, foreign members and honorary fellows. The honour, given to Isaac Newton in 1672 and Charles Darwin in 1839, has gone to about 8,000 people in total, and The Guardian likened it to a lifetime achievement Oscar.
Fellowship recognises a substantial contribution to natural knowledge, taking in mathematics, engineering and medicine. The Royal Society is the oldest scientific academy known to have existed without interruption, and more than 280 Nobel laureates have been elected since 1900. In October 2018 about 1,689 fellows and members were alive, 85 of them Nobel winners. Past fellows include Alan Turing and Srinivasa Ramanujan.
Up to 52 fellows a year come from the UK, the Commonwealth and Ireland, who make up about 90 percent of the society, and up to ten foreign members are added. Each candidate needs a proposer and a seconder who are already fellows; an older rule demanding five supporters drew criticism as an old boy network. Ten sectional committees, whose members rotate every three years to limit in-group bias, sift the nominations, and a candidate needs two-thirds of the votes cast in a secret ballot in May.
Honorary fellowship goes to people who have served science without the research record of a full fellow, such as the writer Bill Bryson and the broadcaster Melvyn Bragg. Before that category existed in 1997, a legacy rule known as statute 12 brought in figures including David Attenborough in 1983. Every reigning monarch since Charles II has been a patron, and members of the royal family can be elected as Royal Fellows.
New fellows sign the Charter Book at a July ceremony, promising to promote the good of the society, with a clause releasing anyone who later writes to the president to withdraw. The society also funds research fellowships that individuals apply for, including University Research Fellowships for early-career scientists, once held by Brian Cox, and Dorothy Hodgkin fellowships for those who need flexible working.
Source: Fellow of the Royal Society
