The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is 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 and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. It was established in 1783. , there are around 1,800 Fellows. The Society covers a broader range of fields than the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

of London, including

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

and

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

. The Fellowship includes people from a wide range of disciplines: science and technology, arts, humanities, medicine,

social science Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among members within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the ...

, business, and

public service A public service or service of general (economic) interest is any service intended to address the needs of aggregate members of a community, whether provided directly by a public sector agency, via public financing available to private busin ...

History

At the start of the 18th century,

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

's intellectual climate fostered many clubs and societies (see

Scottish Enlightenment The Scottish Enlightenment (, ) was the period in 18th- and early-19th-century Scotland characterised by an outpouring of intellectual and scientific accomplishments. By the eighteenth century, Scotland had a network of parish schools in the Sco ...

). Though there were several that treated the arts, sciences and medicine, the most prestigious was the Society for the Improvement of Medical Knowledge, commonly referred to as the Medical Society of Edinburgh, co-founded by the mathematician

Colin Maclaurin Colin Maclaurin (; ; February 1698 – 14 June 1746) was a Scottish mathematician who made important contributions to geometry and algebra. He is also known for being a child prodigy and holding the record for being the youngest professor. ...

in 1731. Maclaurin was unhappy with the specialist nature of the Medical Society, and in 1737 a new, broader society, the Edinburgh Society for Improving Arts and Sciences and particularly Natural Knowledge, was split from the specialist medical organisation, which then went on to become the

Royal Medical Society The Royal Medical Society (RMS) is a society run by students at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, Scotland. It claims to be the oldest medical society in the United Kingdom although this claim is also made by the earlier London-based ...

. The cumbersome name was changed the following year to the Edinburgh Philosophical Society. With the help of

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

professors like

Joseph Black Joseph Black (16 April 1728 – 6 December 1799) was a British physicist and chemist, known for his discoveries of magnesium, latent heat, specific heat, and carbon dioxide. He was Professor of Anatomy and Chemistry at the University of Glasgow ...

William Cullen William Cullen (; 15 April 17105 February 1790) was a British physician, chemist and agriculturalist from Hamilton, Scotland, who also served as a professor at the Edinburgh Medical School. Cullen was a central figure in the Scottish Enli ...

and John Walker, this society transformed itself into the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1783, and in 1788 it issued the first volume of its new journal ''Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh''. Towards the end of the century, the younger members such as James Hall embraced

Lavoisier Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier ( ; ; 26 August 17438 May 1794),
CNRS (

Wernerian Society The Wernerian Natural History Society (12 January 1808 – 16 April 1858), commonly abbreviated as the Wernerian Society, was a learned society interested in the broad field of natural history, and saw papers presented on various topics such as m ...

(1808–58), a parallel organisation that focused more upon natural history and scientific research that could be used to improve Scotland's weak agricultural and industrial base. Under the leadership of Prof.

Robert Jameson image:Robert Jameson.jpg, Robert Jameson Robert Jameson Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS FRSE (11 July 1774 – 19 April 1854) was a Scottish natural history, naturalist and mineralogist. As Regius Professor of Natural History at the Univers ...

, the Wernerians first founded ''Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural History Society'' (1808–21) and then the ''

Edinburgh Philosophical Journal The ''Edinburgh Philosophical Journal'' was founded by its editors, Robert Jameson and David Brewster in 1819 as a scientific journal to publish articles on the latest science of the day. In 1826 the two editors fell out, and Jameson continued pub ...

'' (1822, ''Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal'' from late 1826), thereby diverting the output of the Royal Society's ''Transactions''. Thus, for the first four decades of the 19th century, the RSE's members published articles in two different journals. By the 1850s, the society once again unified its membership under one journal. During the 19th century, the society contained many scientists whose ideas laid the foundation of the modern sciences. From the 20th century onward, the society functioned not only as a focal point for Scotland's eminent scientists but also for the arts and humanities. It still exists today and continues to promote original research in Scotland. In February 2014, Dame

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 ...

was announced as the society's first female president, taking up her position in October.

The Young Academy of Scotland

The Young Academy of Scotland was founded by the RSE in 2011. It aims to bring together young professionals (aged mid-20s to 40s) from the widest range of disciplines and regions in Scotland to provide ideas and direction for challenges facing Scotland. The members are roughly equal numbers of women and men, serve for five years and are selected from applicants every two years. In 2021 there were 134 members.

Location

The Royal Society has been housed in a succession of locations: * 1783–1807: College Library,

* 1807–1810: Physicians' Hall, George Street; the home of the

Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE) is a medical royal college in Scotland. It is one of three organisations that set the specialty training standards for physicians in the United Kingdom. It was established by royal charter i ...

* 1810–1826: 40–42 George Street; shared with the

Society of Antiquaries of Scotland The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland is the senior antiquarian body of Scotland, with its headquarters in the National Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh. The Society's aim is to promote the cultural heritage of Scotland. The usu ...

from 1813 * 1826–1908: the Royal Institution (now called the

Royal Scottish Academy Building The Royal Scottish Academy building, the home of the Royal Scottish Academy, is an art museum in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is situated at the junction of The Mound and Princes Street in the centre of the city. It was built by William Henry Playf ...

) on

the Mound The Mound is an artificial slope and road in central Edinburgh, Scotland, which connects Edinburgh's New and Old Towns. It was formed by dumping around 1,501,000 cartloads of earth excavated from the foundations of the New Town into Nor Loc ...

; shared, at first, with the

Board of Manufactures During the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, Scottish industrial policy was made by the Board of Trustees for Fisheries, Manufactures and Improvements in Scotland, which sought to build an economy complementary, not competitive, with En ...

(the owners), the Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Scotland and the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland * 1908–1909: University premises at High School Yards * 1909–present: 22–24 George Street, purchased from the Edinburgh Life Assurance Company with the assistance of a grant of £25,000 from the

Scottish Office The Scottish Office was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom from 1885 until 1999, exercising a wide range of government functions in relation to Scotland under the control of the Secretary of State for Scotland. Following the es ...

Awards and medals

Fellowship

Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

is an award in its own right that entitles

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 to use of the

initialism An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial letter of each word in all caps wi ...

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 in official titles.

Royal Medals

The Royal Medals are awarded annually, preferably to people with a Scottish connection, who have achieved distinction and international repute in either life sciences, physical and engineering sciences, arts, humanities and social sciences or business and commerce. The Medals were instituted in 2000 by Queen Elizabeth II, whose permission was required to make a presentation. Past winners include: *2020: Peter Kennedy *2019:

Nicola Benedetti Nicola Joy Nadia Benedetti (born 20 July 1987) is a Scottish classical solo violinist and festival director. Her ability was recognised when she was a child, including the award of BBC Young Musician of the Year when she was 16. She works wi ...

*2018: David Climie, Richard Henderson and

Thea Musgrave Thea Musgrave Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 27 May 1928) is a Scottish composer of opera and classical music. She has lived in the United States since 1972. Biography Born in Barnton, Edinburgh, Barnton, Edinburgh, Mus ...

*2017: Tessa Holyoake *2016: James Hough and Angus Stewart Deaton *2015: ''No award'' *2014: W. B. Kibble and Richard G. Morris *2013: John Cadogan, Michael Ferguson and Ian Wood *2012: David Milne and

Edwin Southern Sir Edwin Mellor Southern (born 7 June 1938) is an English Lasker Award-winning molecular biologist, Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. He is most widely known for the inventi ...

*2011: Baroness Helena Kennedy,

Noreen Murray Noreen Elizabeth, Lady Murray (; 26 February 1935 – 12 May 2011) was an English molecular geneticist who helped pioneer recombinant DNA technology (genetic engineering) by creating a series of bacteriophage lambda vectors into which ge ...

and Desmond Smith *2010:

Fraser Stoddart Sir James Fraser Stoddart, (24 May 1942 – 30 December 2024) was a British-American chemist who was Chair Professor in Chemistry at the University of Hong Kong. He was the Board of Trustees Professor of Chemistry and head of the Stoddart ...

and James MacMillan *2009:

James Mirrlees Sir James Alexander Mirrlees (5 July 1936 – 29 August 2018) was a British economist and winner of the 1996 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. He was knighted in the 1997 Birthday Honours. Early life and education Born in Minniga ...

, Wilson Sibbett, and Karen Vousden *2008: Roger Fletcher, Richard Holloway, and David Lane *2007: David Carter, John David M H Laver, and Thomas F. W. McKillop *2006: John M. Ball and David Jack *2005: David Edward and William G. Hill *2004: Philip Cohen,

Neil MacCormick Sir Donald Neil MacCormick (27 May 1941 – 5 April 2009) was a Scottish legal philosopher and politician. He was Regius Professor of Public Law and the Law of Nature and Nations at the University of Edinburgh from 1972 until 2008. He was a ...

, and

Robin Milner Arthur John Robin Gorell Milner (13 January 1934 – 20 March 2010) was a British computer scientist, and a Turing Award winner.Paul Nurse Sir Paul Maxime Nurse (born 25 January 1949) is an English geneticist, former President of the Royal Society and Chief Executive and Director of the Francis Crick Institute. He was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, along ...

, James Mackay and

Michael Atiyah Sir Michael Francis Atiyah (; 22 April 1929 – 11 January 2019) was a British-Lebanese mathematician specialising in geometry. His contributions include the Atiyah–Singer index theorem and co-founding topological K-theory. He was awarded the ...

*2002: Alfred Cuschieri, Alan Peacock, and John R Mallard *2001: James Black,

Tom Devine Sir Thomas Martin Devine (born 30 July 1945), usually known as Sir Tom Devine, is a Scottish academic and author who specializes in the history of Scotland. He was knighted and made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his contr ...

, and A Ian Scott *2000: Kenneth Murray,

Peter Higgs Peter Ware Higgs (29 May 1929 – 8 April 2024) was a British theoretical physicist, professor at the University of Edinburgh,Griggs, Jessica (Summer 2008The Missing Piece ''Edit'' the University of Edinburgh Alumni Magazine, p. 17 and Nobel ...

, and

Walter Perry Walter Laing MacDonald Perry, Baron Perry of Walton (16 June 1921 – 17 July 2003) was a Scottish academic. He was the first Vice Chancellor of the Open University. Life Perry was born in Dundee, son of Flora and Fletcher Perry, and educate ...

Lord Kelvin Medal

The Lord Kelvin Medal is the Senior Prize for physical, engineering, and informatics sciences. It is awarded annually to a person who has achieved distinction nationally and internationally, and who has contributed to wider society by the accessible dissemination of research and scholarship. Winners receive a silver medal and are required to deliver a public lecture in Scotland. The award is named after

William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (26 June 182417 December 1907), was a British mathematician, Mathematical physics, mathematical physicist and engineer. Born in Belfast, he was the Professor of Natural Philosophy (Glasgow), professor of Natur ...

(1824–1907), who was a famous mathematical physicist and engineer, and professor of natural philosophy at the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

. Senior Prize-winners are required to have a Scottish connection but can be based anywhere in the world.

Keith Medal

The Keith Medal was historically awarded every four years for a scientific paper published in the society's scientific journals, preference being given to a paper containing a discovery. It was awarded alternately for papers on mathematics and those on earth and environmental sciences. The medal was founded in 1827 as a result of a bequest by Alexander Keith of Dunnottar, the first treasurer of the Society.

Lady Margaret Moir Medal (formerly the Makdougall Brisbane Prize)

The Lady Margaret Moir Medal recognises exceptional achievements in physical, engineering and informatic sciences (including mathematics) by an early career researcher. Awardees are required to have a Scottish connection but can be based anywhere in the world. The prize was founded in 1855 by Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, the long-serving fourth president of the Society. The medal was renamed in 2022 to reflect Margaret Moir's contribution to science in Scotland.

Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize

The Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize Lectureship is a quadrennial award to recognise original work done by scientists resident in or connected with Scotland. The award was founded in 1887 by

Robert Halliday Gunning Robert Halliday Gunning FRSE Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh, PRPSE FSA Legum Doctor, LLD (12 December 1818 – 22 March 1900) was a Scottish surgeon, entrepreneur and philanthropist. He did much to improve social conditions in Brazil and al ...

, a Scottish surgeon, entrepreneur and philanthropist who spent much of his life in Brazil.

Bruce-Preller Lectures

This biennial lecture given at the Society was begun in 1931 at the bequest of Charles Preller and named after himself and his late wife, Rachel Steuart Bruce. It is usually (but not invariably) given by a Fellow either of the Royal Society of Edinburgh or the

Royal Society of London The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...

Presidents

Presidents of the Royal Society of Edinburgh have included:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Royal Society Of Edinburgh

1783 establishments in Scotland Learned societies of Scotland Society of Edinburgh New Town, Edinburgh Organisations based in Edinburgh Organizations established in 1783 Organisations supported by the Scottish Government Scientific organizations established in 1783