Nine outstanding Cambridge scientists have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences and the oldest science academy in continuous existence.
“It is with great pleasure that I welcome the latest cohort of outstanding researchers into the Fellowship of the Royal Society.
“Their achievements represent the very best of scientific endeavour, from basic discovery to research with real-world impact across health, technology and policy. From tackling global health challenges to reimagining what AI can do for humanity, their work is a testament to the power of curiosity-driven research and innovation.
The strength of the Fellowship lies not only in individual excellence, but in the diversity of backgrounds, perspectives and experiences each new member brings. This cohort represents the truly global nature of modern science and the importance of collaboration in driving scientific breakthroughs," Sir Adrian Smith, President of the Royal Society.
The Fellows and Foreign Members join the ranks of Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Lise Meitner, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Dorothy Hodgkin.
ioneered the application of machine learning to molecular modelling which lead to enormous gains in the efficiency of molecular dynamics simulation:
Professor Judith Driscoll FRS
Professor of Materials Science in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, and a Fellow of Trinity College, Professor Drisoll's research is concerned with the nanoscale design and tuning of functional oxide thin film materials for energy-efficient electronic applications. A particular focus of her research group is oxide thin films, owing to their wide range of functionalities and their stability.
Professor Marie Edmonds FRS
Head of Department and Professor of Volcanology and Petrology in the Department of Earth Sciences, Professor Edmonds iresearch focuses on understanding the impact of volcanoes on our environment and on the habitability of our planet. Her research spans the boundaries between traditional disciplines, from deciphering the nature of the interior of the Earth, to magma transport and storage in the crust, to volcano monitoring, understanding ore deposits and the dynamic chemistry of volcanic gases in the atmosphere and climate.
Professor Gábor Csányi FRS
Professor of Molecular Modelling in the Department of Engineerin, Professor Csány's in the field of computational chemistry, and is focused on developing algorithms to predict the properties of materials and molecules from first principles. He pioneered the application of machine learning to molecular modelling which lead to enormous gains in the efficiency of molecular dynamics simulation.
Professor Edward Bullmore FMedSci FRS
Professor of Psychiatry and former Head of the Department of Psychiatry, Professor Bullmore's research mainly involves the application of brain imaging to psychiatry. He has introduced an entirely original approach to the analysis of human brain anatomy, involving graph theory and its application to small-world networks.
Professor Julian Hibberd FRS
Head of the Department of Plant Sciences, Professor Hibberd's research focuses on guiding optimisation of photosynthesis to improve crop yields. The C4 pathway is a complex form of photosynthesis that evolved around 30 million years ago and is now used by the most productive plants on the planet. .
Dr Gregory Jefferis FRS
Dr Jefferis is Joint Head of the Neurobiology Division at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Director of Research of the Department of Zoology. The broad goal of his research is to understand how smell turns into behaviour in the fruit fly brain. His group is particularly interested in how odour information is processed by the higher olfactory centres that mediate innate and learned behaviour.
Professor Jason Miller FRS
Professor in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics, Professor Miller's research interests are in probability, in particular stochastic interface models, random walk, mixing times for Markov chains, and interacting particle systems.
Professor Andrew Pitts FRS
Professor Pitts is Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Computer Science in the Department of Computer Science and Technology, and his research makes use of techniques from category theory, mathematical logic and type theory to advance the foundations of programming language semantics and theorem proving systems.
Dr Marta Zlatic FRS
Dr Zlatic is Programme Leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, and Director of Research in the Department of Zoology.Her research aims to understand the relationship between the structure of the nervous system and its function and to discover the basic principles by which neural circuits implement fundamental computations.