Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the
Royal Society of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...
, Scotland's
national academy
A national academy is an organizational body, usually operating with state financial support and approval, that co-ordinates scholarly research activities and standards for academic disciplines, and serves as a public policy advisors, research ...
of
science
Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
and
letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This society received a
royal charter
A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, but ...
in 1783, allowing for its expansion.
Elections
Around 50 new
fellow
A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...
s are elected each year in March.
[ there are around 1,650 Fellows, including 71 Honorary Fellows and 76 Corresponding Fellows.]
Fellows are entitled to use the post-nominal letters
Post-nominal letters, also called post-nominal initials, post-nominal titles, designatory letters, or simply post-nominals, are letters placed after a person's name to indicate that the individual holds a position, an academic degree, accreditation ...
FRSE, Honorary Fellows HonFRSE, and Corresponding Fellows CorrFRSE.
Disciplines
The Fellowship is split into four broad sectors, covering the full range of physical and life sciences, arts, humanities, social sciences, education, professions, industry, business and public life.
A: Life sciences
* A1: Biomedical and cognitive sciences
* A2: Clinical sciences
* A3: Organismal and environmental biology
* A4: Cell and molecular biology
B: Physical, engineering and informatic sciences
* B1: Physics and astronomy
* B2: Earth sciences and chemistry
* B3: Engineering
* B4: Informatics, mathematics and statistics
C: Arts, humanities and social sciences
* C1: Language, literature and history
* C2: Philosophy, theology and law
* C3: History, theory and practice of the creative and performing arts
* C4: Economics and social sciences
D: Business, public service and public engagement
* D1: Public engagement and understanding
* D2: Professional, educational and public sector leadership
* D3: Private sector leadership
Notable fellows
Examples of current fellows include Peter Higgs and Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Dame Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell (; Bell; born 15 July 1943) is a Northern Irish physicist who, as a doctoral student, discovered the first radio pulsars in 1967. This discovery later earned the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1974, but she was not ...
.[ Previous fellows have included Melvin Calvin, ]Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin (April 17, 1790) was an American polymath: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and Political philosophy, political philosopher.#britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the m ...
, James Clerk Maxwell
James Clerk Maxwell (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish physicist and mathematician who was responsible for the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, which was the first theory to describe electricity, magnetism an ...
, James Watt
James Watt (; 30 January 1736 (19 January 1736 OS) – 25 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1776, which was f ...
, Thomas Reid
Thomas Reid (; 7 May (Julian calendar, O.S. 26 April) 1710 – 7 October 1796) was a religiously trained Scotland, Scottish philosophy, philosopher best known for his philosophical method, his #Thomas_Reid's_theory_of_common_sense, theory of ...
, and Andrew Lawrence.
A comprehensive biographical list of Fellows from 1783–2002 has been published by the Society.
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Scottish awards
Fellows of learned societies of Scotland
British academic awards
*
Royal Society of Edinburgh