Copley Medal

thumb|The Copley Medal The Copley Medal is an annual award bestowed by the UK's Royal Society. The medal alternates between the physical sciences or mathematics and the biological sciences. The Copley Medal is the oldest and most prestigious Royal Society award, as well as the world's oldest surviving scientific award. See also: :Category:Recipients of the Copley Medal Quotes The Copley Medal has long been regarded as "the highest scientific distinction that the Royal Society has to bestow" ... It was made possible by the legacy of 100 pounds from Sir Godfrey Copley, 2nd Baronet Sir Godfrey Copley, Bart, F.R.S., in 1709. The prize was originally intended to be laid out in experiments for the benefit of the Society. In 1736, Martin Folkes, subsequently President of the Society, suggested that "a medal or other honorary prize should be bestowed on the person whose experiment should be best approved, by which means he apprehended a laudable emulation might be excited among men of genius to try their invention, whom, in all probability, may never be moved for the sake of lucre" ...The terms of the prize were modified in 1831, when it was resolved that a medal be awarded "to the living author of such philosophical research, either published or communicated to the Society as may appear to the Council to be deserving of that honour." The weight of the medal was fixed at "1 oz, 2 Pennyweight dwts of fine gold." The awardees have included Benjamin Franklin in 1753, Joseph Priestley in 1772, Sir Humphry Davy in 1805 ... Alexander Gordon Bearn Alexander G. Bearn, Oswald T. Avery and the Copley Medal of the Royal Society Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 39 4 1996 550-554 https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/401240/summary 10.1353/pbm.1996.0044 It has become a commonplace that exceptional achievement, including within science, should be rewarded with prizes and that these will often take the form of a medal. The ubiquity of such awards today means that the circumstances behind their arrival tend to be overlooked, but they were novelties when first suggested at the Royal Society in the 1730s. This article traces the creation of the Copley Medal and explores the meaning of medals to the recipients, the Society and the proposer of the scheme, Martin Folkes. Paying attention to the medal’s iconography and material nature can shed light on how experimental philosophy and the role of the Royal Society were conceived by key Fellows, demonstrating their links to antiquarianism and Freemasonry. Rebekah Higgitt, “In the Society’s Strong Box”: A Visual and Material History of the Royal Society’s Copley Medal, c. 1736–1760 Nuncius 34 2 2019 284–316 https://brill.com/view/journals/nun/34/2/article-p284_6.xml Two or three weeks before his death, he heard from the Royal Society that he was to be given their highest honour, the Copley Medal. He gave his Mephistophelian grin, the first time I had seen it in full splendour in all those months. 'Now I know that I must be pretty near the end. When people hurry up to give you honorific things there is only one conclusion to be drawn.' C. P. Snow, A Mathematician's Apology by G. H. Hardy with a Foreword by C. P. Snow 57 of Foreword 1967 Cambridge University Press (1st published in 1940; foreword added in 1967) External links Category:Awards