The President of the Royal Society (PRS) is the elected head of the Royal Society of London. The position is now awarded to a member of the scientific community of the British Commonwealth for a period of five years, and is one of the highest honours that can be bestowed upon a scientist. The premises of the Royal Society in London (first four properties only). ... London is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England and is the most populous city in the European Union. ... The Commonwealth of Nations, usually known as The Commonwealth, is an association of 53 independent sovereign states, almost all of which are former territories of the British Empire. ...

The changeover of Presidents occurs on the Royal Society's Anniversary Day, the weekday on or nearest to 30 November, following the departing President's Anniversary Address.[1] November 30 is the 334th day (335th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 31 days remaining. ...

The current President is The Lord Rees of Ludlow. The Right Honourable Martin John Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow, FRS (born 23 June 1942) is a professor of astronomy. ...

Presidents of the Royal Society

1. 1662-1677 The Viscount Brouncker
2. 1677-1680 Sir Joseph Williamson
3. 1680-1682 Sir Christopher Wren
4. 1682-1683 John Hoskins
5. 1683-1684 Cyril Wyche
6. 1684-1686 Samuel Pepys
7. 1686-1689 The Earl of Carbery
8. 1689-1690 The Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery
9. 1690-1695 Robert Southwell
10. 1695-1698 The Earl of Halifax
11. 1698-1703 The Lord Somers
12. 1703-1727 Sir Isaac Newton
13. 1727-1741 Sir Hans Sloane
14. 1741-1752 Martin Folkes
15. 1752-1764 The Earl of Macclesfield
16. 1764-1768 The Earl of Morton
17. 1768-1768 James Burrow
18. 1768-1772 James West
19. 1772-1772 James Burrow
20. 1772-1778 Sir John Pringle
21. 1778-1820 Sir Joseph Banks
22. 1820-1820 William Hyde Wollaston
23. 1820-1827 Sir Humphry Davy
24. 1827-1830 Davies Gilbert
25. 1830-1838 HRH The Duke of Sussex
26. 1838-1848 The Marquess of Northampton
27. 1848-1854 The Earl of Rosse
28. 1854-1858 The Lord Wrottesley
29. 1858-1861 Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, Bart.
30. 1861-1871 Sir Edward Sabine
31. 1871-1873 Sir George Biddell Airy
32. 1873-1878 Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
33. 1878-1883 William Spottiswoode
34. 1883-1885 The Rt. Hon. Thomas Henry Huxley, P.C.
35. 1885-1890 Sir George Gabriel Stokes
36. 1890-1895 The Lord Kelvin
37. 1895-1900 The Lord Lister
38. 1900-1905 Sir William Huggins
39. 1905-1908 The Lord Rayleigh
40. 1908-1913 Sir Archibald Geikie
41. 1913-1915 Sir William Crookes
42. 1915-1920 Sir Joseph John Thomson
43. 1920-1925 Sir Charles Sherrington
44. 1925-1930 The Lord Rutherford of Nelson
45. 1930-1935 Sir Frederick Hopkins
46. 1935-1940 Sir William Henry Bragg
47. 1940-1945 Sir Henry Hallett Dale
48. 1945-1950 Sir Robert Robinson
49. 1950-1955 The Lord Adrian
50. 1955-1960 Sir Cyril Norman Hinshelwood
51. 1960-1965 The Lord Florey
52. 1965-1970 The Lord Blackett
53. 1970-1975 Sir Alan Hodgkin
54. 1975-1980 The Lord Todd
55. 1980-1985 Sir Andrew Huxley
56. 1985-1990 Sir George Porter
57. 1990-1995 Sir Michael Atiyah
58. 1995-2000 Sir Aaron Klug
59. 2000-2005 The Lord May of Oxford
60. 2005- The Lord Rees of Ludlow

William Brouncker, 2nd Viscount Brouncker (1620–5 April 1684) was an English mathematician. ... Sir Joseph Williamson (1633-3 October 1701), English politician, was born at Bridekirk, near Cockermouth, his father, Joseph Williamson, being vicar of this place. ... Christopher Wren by Godfrey Kneller, 1711. ... John Hoskins, FRS (d. ... The Right Honourable Sir Cyril Wyche, FRS , DCL , MA , BA (1632 - ?1707) was an English lawyer and politician. ... Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys, FRS (23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament. ... John Vaughan, 3rd Earl of Carbery FRS (baptised 8 July 1639 – 12 January 1713) was Governor of Jamaica between 1675–1678 and President of the Royal Society between 1686–1689, having been elected a Fellow in 1685. ... Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke, 5th Earl of Montgomery (c. ... St Robert Southwell (c. ... Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax (April 16, 1661 - May 19, 1715) was Chancellor of the Exchequer, poet, statesman, and Earl of Halifax. ... John Somers, 1st Baron Somers (4 March 1651–26 April 1716), was Lord Chancellor of England under King William III. He was born near Worcester, the eldest son of John Somers, an attorney in large practice in that town, who had formerly fought on the side of the Parliament, and... Sir Isaac Newton, President of the Royal Society, (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727) [OS: 25 December 1642 – 20 March 1727] was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, chemist, inventor, and natural philosopher who is generally regarded as one of the most influential scientists and mathematicians in history. ... Hans Sloane. ... Martin Folkes, painted & etched by William Hogarth Martin Folkes, FRS (October 29, 1690 – 1754), English antiquary, was born in London. ... George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield (c. ... James Douglas, 14th Earl of Morton (1702 -October 12, 1768), became president of the Royal Society (1764), and was a distinguished patron of science, and particularly of astronomy. ... Sir James Burrow FRS FSA, (born 28 November 1701, died 5 November 1782 at Starborough Castle, Lingfield, Surrey), was a Legal Reporter at Inner Temple, London, and was Vice President and twice briefly President of the Royal Society. ... There have been several people named James West, including: James E. West, the former mayor of Spokane, Washington, who was recalled in December 2005 in a gay sex scandal. ... Sir James Burrow FRS FSA, (born 28 November 1701, died 5 November 1782 at Starborough Castle, Lingfield, Surrey), was a Legal Reporter at Inner Temple, London, and was Vice President and twice briefly President of the Royal Society. ... John Pringle. ... Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, PRS (February 13, 1743 – June 19, 1820) was the English naturalist and botanist on Cooks first great voyage (1768–1771) and some 75 species bear Banks name. ... William Hyde Wollaston (August 6, 1766 – December 22, 1828) was an English chemist who is famous for discovering two chemical elements and for developing a way to process platinum ore. ... Sir Humphry Davy. ... Davies Gilbert (1767 - 1839), English author, sheriff, president of the Royal Society of Science, and Member of Parliament. ... Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (27 January 1773 – 21 April 1843), was the sixth son of King George III of the United Kingdom and his consort, Queen Charlotte. ... Spencer Joshua Alwyne Compton, 2nd Marquess of Northampton (2 January 1790-17 January 1851) was a British nobleman and patron of science and the arts. ... Lord Rosse William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse (June 17, 1800 – October 31, 1867) was an Irish astronomer. ... John Wrottesley, 2nd Baron Wrottesley (August 5, 1798 – October 27, 1867) was a British astronomer. ... Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, 1st Bart. ... Sir Edward Sabine (October 14, 1788 – May 26, 1883) was an Irish astronomer, scientist, ornithologist and explorer. ... George Biddell Airy Sir George Biddell Airy (July 27, 1801–January 2, 1892) was British Astronomer Royal from 1835 to 1881. ... Joseph Dalton Hooker Joseph Dalton Hooker Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, GCSI, OM, FRS, MD (June 30, 1817 – December 10, 1911) was an English botanist and traveller. ... William Spottiswoode William Spottiswoode (January 11, 1825, London - June 27, 1883)was an English mathematician and physicist. ... Thomas Huxley Thomas Henry Huxley F.R.S. (May 4, 1825 – June 29, 1895) was a British biologist, known as Darwins Bulldog for his defence of Charles Darwins theory of evolution. ... George Gabriel Stokes Sir George Gabriel Stokes, 1st Baronet (13 August 1819–1 February 1903) was an Anglo-Irish mathematician and physicist. ... William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, GCVO, OM, PC, PRS (26 June 1824–17 December 1907) was an Irish-Scottish mathematical physicist, engineer, and outstanding leader in the physical sciences of the 19th century. ... Joseph Lister The Right Honourable Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister, OM , FRS (5 April 1827–10 February 1912) was a famous British surgeon who promoted the idea of sterile surgery while working at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. ... William Huggins Sir William Huggins, OM , FRS (February 7, 1824 – May 12, 1910) was a British astronomer. ... See also Rayleigh fading Rayleigh scattering Rayleigh number Rayleigh waves Rayleigh-Jeans law External links Nobel website bio of Rayleigh About John William Strutt MacTutor biography of Lord Rayleigh Categories: People stubs | 1842 births | 1919 deaths | Nobel Prize in Physics winners | Peers | British physicists | Discoverer of a chemical element ... Sir Archibald Geikie (December 28, 1835 _ November 10, 1924), Scottish geologist, was born at Edinburgh. ... Sir William Crookes, OM , FRS (June 17, 1832 – April 4, 1919) was an English chemist and physicist. ... Sir Joseph John Thomson Sir Joseph John Thomson (18 December 1856 – 30 August 1940), often known as J. J. Thomson, was an English physicist, the discoverer of the electron. ... Sherrington is considered one of the fathers of neuroscience. ... Ernest Rutherford Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, PC, OM, FRS (August 30, 1871 – October 19, 1937), was a New Zealand nuclear physicist. ... Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins (June 20, 1861 – May 16, 1947) was an English biochemist, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1929 with Christiaan Eijkman for the discovery of vitamins. ... Sir William Henry Bragg OM, Cantab, OKW (Westward, Cumbria, England July 2, 1862 – March 10, 1942) was an English physicist and chemist, educated at King Williams College, Isle of Man, and Trinity College, Cambridge. ... Sir Henry Hallett Dale (June 9, 1875 - July 23, 1968) was an English scientist. ... Robert Robinson is the estranged son of Paul Robinson on the long-running Australian soap opera Neighbours and is portrayed by Adam Hunter. ... Edgar Douglas Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian (born London, 30 November 1889, died London, 4 August 1977) was a British electrophysiologist and recipient of the 1932 Nobel Prize for Physiology, won jointly with Sir Charles Sherrington for work on the function of neurons. ... Sir Cyril Norman Hinshelwood was an English physical chemist. ... Howard Walter Florey, Baron Florey (September 24, 1898 - February 21, 1968) was a pharmacologist who shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Ernst Chain and Sir Alexander Fleming for his role in the extraction of penicillin. ... The Right Honourable Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett, Baron Blackett, OM, CH, FRS (18 November 1897–13 July 1974) was a British experimental physicist known for his work on cloud chambers, cosmic rays, and paleomagnetism. ... Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin (February 5, 1914 _ December 20, 1998) was a British physiologist and biophysicist, who won the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work with Andrew Fielding Huxley on the basis of nerve action potentials, the electrical impulses that enable the activity of an... The Right Honourable Alexander Robert Todd, Baron Todd, OM, FRS (2 October 1907–10 January 1997) was a British biochemist whose research on the structure and synthesis of nucleotides, nucleosides, and nucleotide coenzymes gained him the 1957 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. ... Andrew Huxley at Trinity College, Cambridge, July 2005 Family tree Sir Andrew Fielding Huxley, OM, FRS (born 22 November 1917, Hampstead, London, England, UK) is a British physiologist and biophysicist, who won the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work with Alan Lloyd Hodgkin on the basis... The Right Honourable George Porter, Baron Porter of Luddenham, OM, FRS (6 December 1920–31 August 2002) was an English chemist. ... Sir Michael Francis Atiyah, OM, FRS (born 22 April 1929) is a mathematician who was born in London. ... Sir Aaron Klug, OM, FRS (born 11 August 1926 in Zelvas, Lithuania ) is a Lithuanian-born British physicist and chemist, and winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his development of crystallographic electron microscopy. ... Robert McCredie Bob May, Baron May of Oxford OM AC Kt (born 8 January 1936 in Australia) is a cross-bench member of the British House of Lords and President of the Royal Society. ... The Right Honourable Martin John Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow, FRS (born 23 June 1942) is a professor of astronomy. ...

External links

• Presidents of the Royal Society