Royal Society

Royal Society, oldest scientific organization in Great Britain and one of the oldest in Europe. The Royal Society was first incorporated in 1662 as the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge. It was founded in 1660 by a group of learned men in London who met to promote scientific discussion, particularly in the physical sciences. It stimulates research in that field and acts in the capacity of adviser on scientific matters to the government, from which it receives annual subsidies. The Royal Society ranks as the foremost organization of its kind; its membership always includes leading scientists of the world. One of its activities is the publication of its Proceedings and The Philosophical Transactions. Among those who served as president of the Royal Society are Samuel Pepys, Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Joseph Banks, Sir Humphry Davy, Sir William Huggins, Lord Rayleigh, Sir Archibald Geikie, Sir William Crookes, Sir Joseph John Thomson, Sir Charles Sherrington, Lord Rutherford, Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins, and Sir William Henry Bragg.

Bibliography

See T. Sprat, History of the Royal Society (1667, ed. by J. I. Cope and H. W. Jones, 1959); Sir Harold Hartley, ed., Royal Society: Its Origins and Founders (1960); M. Hunter, Establishing the New Science: The Experience of the Early Royal Society (1989).

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Royal Society (of London for Improving Natural Knowledge)

Leading scientific society in Britain and the oldest national scientific society in the world. Founded in 1660, its early members included Robert Hooke, Christopher Wren, Isaac Newton, and Edmond Halley. It has long provided an impetus to scientific thought and research in the U.K., and its achievements have become internationally famous. The society's Philosophical Transactions, the oldest scientific periodical in continuous publication, has published papers since 1665. The society awards several prizes, the most prestigious being the Copley Medal. At the beginning of the 21st century, the society had some 1,300 fellows and 130 foreign members.

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Royal Society 

the name of the leading scholarly and scientific center, often fulfilling the functions of an academy of science, in a number of countries, including Australia, Great Britain, Denmark, Canada, New Zealand, and the Republic of South Africa. The oldest royal society is the Royal Society of London.

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Royal Society 

(full name, Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge), the leading scientific society of Great Britain. Founded in 1660; incorporated by Royal Charter in 1662. It is a self-administering private organization. Although it is not formally associated with government scientific institutions, it plays an important role in the organization and development of research in Great Britain and acts as a consultative body in the resolution of fundamental questions of science policy. It functions as a national academy of sciences in international nongovernmental scientific associations.

As distinguished from the national academies of sciences of other countries, the Royal Society does not have its own scientific research base (with the exception of archives, the scientific research station on the atoll of Aldabra in the Indian Ocean, and the property of geographic and biological expeditions, which it equips in various regions of the world). The society influences the development of national science through its own members, who work in research centers. Practical scientific and organizational activities of the society are implemented through committees and commissions established by its council, which is also the supreme body of the society.

The Royal Society has traditionally oriented its activity toward fundamental research in the natural sciences. In the early 1960’s the society began to strengthen its links with industry and humanitarian institutions. Increasing numbers of representatives of the technical sciences were admitted as fellows of the society. It became engaged in studies of the English system of education and methods of improving it and established a committee on research in industry, as well as commissions for the coordination of the work of English scientists and specialists in medical instrument-making, nonverbal means of communication, pollution of the marine environment, and planetology. Contacts with the national academies of sciences of other countries, including most of the academies of the socialist countries, have been expanded.

As of 1976, the Royal Society had more than 790 national fellows and 79 foreign fellows. Among the national fellows there are 20 Nobel Prize laureates. Foreign membership consists of representatives of 13 countries, including the USSR (V. A. Ambartsumian, I. M. Vinogradov, A. N. Kolmogorov, A. N. Nesmeianov, and N. N. Semenov). Several foreigners are also national fellows, among them the Soviet academician P. L. Kapitsa.

The work of the Royal Society is financed through subsidies from Parliament (about £500,000 per year), earnings from the sale of scientific publications, and annual membership dues. The society publishes the journals Philosophical Transactions (since 1665) and Proceedings of the Royal Society (since 1800). Each journal consists of two series, A (physical and mathematical sciences) and B (biological sciences).

I. A. TIMOFEEV [15-45-3; updated]