Recipients of the Copley Medal

English naturalist and biologist (1809-1882)

American polymath and statesman (1706–1790)

French chemist and microbiologist (1822-1895)

Stephen William Hawking was an English theoretical astrophysicist, cosmologist, and author who was director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge. Between 1979 and 2009, he was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, widely viewed as one of the most prestigious academic posts in the world.

German mathematician and physicist (1777–1855)

British explorer, cartographer and naval officer (1728–1779)

Danish physicist (1885–1962)

German theoretical physicist (1858–1947)

Russian chemist (1834–1907)

British scientist (1791–1867)

New Zealand physicist (1871–1937)

Prussian geographer, naturalist and explorer (1769-1859)

English physicist and brewer (1818–1889)

British theoretical physicist (1902–1984)

Russian physiologist (1849-1936)

British physicist (1856-1940)

Dutch physicist (1853–1928)

Italian physicist, chemist, and pioneer of electricity and power (1745-1827)

German-born British astronomer and composer (1738–1822)

British biologist and comparative anatomist (1825–1895)

James Dewey Watson was an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist. In 1953, he and Francis Crick co-authored an academic paper in Nature proposing the double helix structure of the DNA molecule, building on research by Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling. In 1962, Watson, Crick, and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material".

British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist (1823–1913)

American physicist (1852–1931)

British chemist

German physicist and mathematician

British scientist (1862–1942)

British chemist

British physicist and engineer (1824–1907)

English physicist (1891-1974), who discovered the neutron in 1932

Danish physicist and chemist (1777-1851)

British molecular biologist, biophysicist, neuroscientist; co-discoverer of the structure of DNA

English physicist (1842–1919)

British physicist and Nobel Prize winner (1929–2024)

English mathematical physicist, recreational mathematician and philosopher

English chemist, theologian, educator, and political theorist (1733–1804)

Indian-American astrophysicist

Australian-born British physicist and X-ray crystallographer

Scottish physicist and meteorologist (1869-1959)

English natural philosopher, and scientist (1731–1810)

Swedish chemist (1779–1848)

Russian-French immunologist, embryologist, biologist

English polymath, mathematician, astronomer, chemist, inventor and photographer (*1792 – †1871)

theoretical physicist, and Nobel Prize in Physics recipient

British biochemist (1918–2013)

German mathematician (1815–1897)

German chemist (1803-1873)

German physicist and physiologist (1821-1894)

British mathematician (1877–1947)

German chemist (1811-1899)

French physicist (1819–1868)

German mathematical physicist and professor (1822–1888)

American biologist (1866–1945)

British surgeon and antiseptic pioneer (1827–1912)

French physiologist (1813-1878)

German doctor, anthropologist, public health activist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist and politician (1821-1902)

British physicist (1897-1974)

American scientist (1839–1903)

French mathematician, physicist, astronomer and politician (1786-1853)

British eugenist, polymath, and behavioural geneticist (1822–1911)

French astronomer (1811-1877)