Our achievements

Following a long and distinguished record over many years, the School continues to provide a research home to outstanding scientists of today.

Since 2000 several members and former members of the School including Tim Hunt, Martin Evans, Roger Tsien, Elizabeth Blackburn, the late Bob Edwards and most recently John Gurdon have been awarded a Nobel Prize. Current staff have received many other awards and some of the most recent are mentioned here.

In the 2012 New Year's Honours Trevor Robbins was awarded a CBE for services to medical research. The Biochemical Society announced that its 2013 award winners include Tony Kouzarides, awarded the Novartis Medal and Prize while Sir Tom Blundell received the Biochemical Society Award. George Salmond was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Alfonso Martinez Arias was awarded the Waddington Medal by the British Society of Developmental Biology. Together with other colleagues in the University, Tony Kouzarides was made a Fellow of the Royal Society while Kevin Brindle was made a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. Timothy Clutton-Brock was awarded the Royal Society Darwin Medal and Claire Spottiswoode received a L'Oreal-Unesco UK and Ireland Fellowship for Women in Science. Barry Everitt was awarded the British Association for Psychopharmacology Lifetime Achievement Award and Sir David Baulcombe received the Balzan Prize for epigenetics. The Royal College of Pathologists awarded its Gold Research Medal to Katherine Hughes.

In 2013, Eric Miska was awarded the British Society for Cell Biology Hooke Medal, Ming Du was awarded the Goudie lecture and medal by the Pathological Society and Robin Irvine received the Van Deenen medal from the Institute of Biomembranes in Utrecht. George Salmond was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology while Jennifer Nichols was one of twelve women honoured for their outstanding contributions to science at Suffrage Science: 2013. Peter McNaughton and Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz were elected Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences.  Jenny Clack was made an honorary Doctor of Science by the University of Chicago and was awarded the T. Neville George medal by the Glasgow Geological Society. Henry Disney was awarded Honorary Membership of the Freshwater Biological Association. Usha Goswami was elected Fellow of the British Academy.  The British Society of Audiology gave Chairman's Awards for outstanding contributions to hearing research and to the training of researchers in auditory science to Brian Moore, Brian Glasberg, Tom Baer, and Michael Stone. James Locke was awarded the Merrimack-CSB2 Prize in Systems Biology. Colin Taylor was elected to the Academia Europaea and Tony Kouzarideswon the Heinrich Wieland Prize, which honours outstanding research on biologically active molecules and systems in the fields of chemistry, biochemistry and physiology. At the end of 2013 David Baulcombe was awarded the first McClintock Prize for exceptional contributions in the field of plant epigenetics.

Continuing into 2014, Martin Johnson has been awarded the Marshall Medal by the Society for Reproduction and Fertility and has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Michael Herrtage receives the World Small Animal Veterinary Association International Award for Scientific Achievement. Azim Surani will receive the McEwen Award for Innovation from the International Society for Stem Cell Research. Michael Akam has been awarded the Frink Medal by the Zoological Society of London. Meritxell Huch has received the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) 3Rs Prize. Most recently, Vassilis Koronakis has been elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and Trevor Robbins has been awarded the Brain Prize by the Grete Lundbeck European Brain Research Foundation. Emeritus Professor Donald Broom has received the Sir Patrick Moore Award from the RSPCA and Robin Franklin has received the International Prize in Canine Health. Kevin Brindle and co-workers have shared the World Molecular Imaging Gold Medal.

On their own web sites Departments celebrate many other achievements of their students and staff in teaching, research and in presenting their work via a range of media.