Royal Society of Edinburgh

Royal Society of Edinburgh
Abbreviation	RSE
Formation	1783
Type	Educational charity
Headquarters	Edinburgh
Region served	Scotland
Membership	1500 peer-elected fellows
President	The Rt Hon. Lord Wilson of Tillyorn
Website	www.royalsoced.org.uk

The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity, operating on a wholly independent and non-party-political basis and providing public benefit throughout Scotland. Established in 1783, it has since then drawn upon the strengths and expertise of its Fellows, of which there are currently more than 1500.

The Society covers a broader selection of fields than the Royal Society of London including literature and history. Unlike similar organisations in the rest of the UK, the Fellowship includes people from a wide range of disciplines - science & technology, arts, humanties, medicine, social science, business and public service. This breadth of expertise makes the Royal Society of Edinburgh unique in the UK.

History

At the start of the 18th century, Edinburgh's intellectual climate fostered many clubs and societies (see Scottish Enlightenment). 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 in 1731.

Maclaurin was unhappy with the specialist nature of the Medical Society,^[1] 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 cumbersome name was changed the following year to the Edinburgh Philosophical Society. With the help of University of Edinburgh professors like Joseph Black, William Cullen and John Walker, this society transformed itself into the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1783 and in 1786 it issued the first edition of its new journal Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

As the end of the century drew near, the younger members like Sir James Hall embraced Lavoisier's new nomenclature and the members split over the practical and theoretical objectives of the society. This resulted in the founding of the Wernerian Society (1808–1858), 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, the Wernerians first founded Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural History Society (1808–1821) and then the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal (1822), 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 brilliant articles in two different journals. By the 1850s, Jameson and his partner Sir David Brewster lost their influence and the society once again could unify its membership under one journal.

During the 19th century the society produced many scientists whose ideas laid the foundation of the modern sciences. From the 20th century onward, the society functioned not only as focal point for Scotland's eminent scientists, but also the arts and humanities. It still exists today and continues to promote original research in Scotland.

The current president is former Governor of Hong Kong Lord Wilson of Tillyorn.

Awards

• Keith Medal
• Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize
• James Scott Prize Lectureship
• Makdougall-Brisbane prize, named for Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane who gave 400 pounds in 1855 for the prize when he was president.

List of Presidents of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

1. His Grace The Duke of Buccleuch (1783–1812)
2. Sir James Hall (1812–1820)
3. Sir Walter Scott (1820–1832)
4. Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane (1832–1860)
5. His Grace The Duke of Argyll (1860–1864)
6. Principal Sir David Brewster (1864–1868)
7. Sir Robert Christison (1869–1873)
8. Sir William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) (1873–1878)
9. Rev Philip Kelland (1878–1879)
10. The Rt Hon Lord Moncreiff of Tullibole (1879–1884)
11. Thomas Stevenson (1884–1885)
12. Sir William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) (1886–1890)
13. Sir Douglas Maclagan (1890–1895)
14. The Rt Hon Lord Kelvin (1895–1907)
15. Principal Sir William Turner (1908–1913)
16. Professor James Geikie (1913–1915)
17. Dr John Horne (1915–1919)
18. Professor Frederick Orpen Bower (1919–1924)
19. Sir Alfred Ewing (1924–1929)
20. Sir Edward Sharpey Schafer (1929–1934)
21. Sir D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (1934–1939)
22. Professor Sir Edmund Whittaker (1939–1944)
23. Professor Sir William Wright Smith (1944–1949)
24. Professor James Kendall (1949–1954)
25. Professor James Ritchie (1954–1958)
26. Professor J. Norman Davidson (1958–1959)
27. Professor Sir Edmund Hirst (1959–1964)
28. Professor J. Norman Davidson (1964–1967)
29. Professor Norman Feather (1967–1970)
30. Sir Maurice Yonge (l970-1973)
31. The Hon Lord Cameron (1973–1976)
32. Professor R. A. Smith (1976–1979)
33. Sir Kenneth Blaxter (1979–1982)
34. Sir John Atwell (1982–1985)
35. Sir Alwyn Williams (1985–1988)
36. Professor Charles Kemball (1988–1991)
37. Professor Sir Alastair Currie (1991–1993)
38. Dr Thomas L. Johnston (1993–1996)
39. Professor Malcolm Jeeves (1996–1999)
40. Sir William Stewart (1999–2002)
41. Lord Sutherland of Houndwood (2002–2005)
42. Sir Michael Atiyah (2005–2008)
43. Lord Wilson of Tillyorn (2008–present)

Notable Fellows

Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, denoted by the use of the initialism or post-nominal FRSE in official titles, have included:

• Leonard Schmitz, Ph.D., Rector of the High School of Edinburgh
• Alexander Aitken, New Zealand mathematician
• Jack Allen, Canadian physicist who helped discover the superfluid phase of matter in 1937 using liquid helium, Professor of Physics at the University of St Andrews
• Sir William Eric Kinloch Anderson, Provost of Eton College
• John Arbuthnott, 16th Viscount of Arbuthnott, Scottish soldier and businessman
• Struther Arnott, Scottish molecular biologist and Vice-chancellor of the University of St Andrews
• Robert Bald, surveyor and mining engineer
• Sir Derek Barton, chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry
• Sir John Carruthers Beattie, physicist and first Vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town
• Sir James W. Black, Scottish pharmacologist who invented Propranolol, synthesised Cimetidine, and received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1988
• Robert Black, Queen's Counsel, Professor of Scots Law at the University of Edinburgh
• Walter Biggar Blaikie
• Norman Borlaug, American agricultural scientist, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970, father of the Green Revolution
• L.J.F. Brimble, botanist and editor of Nature magazine
• Sarah Broadie, philosopher specialising in metaphysics and ethics, Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of St Andrews
• John Campbell Brown, Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Regius Professor of Astronomy at the University of Glasgow
• Sir Samuel Brown, engineer and suspension bridge pioneer
• John M. Caie, civil servant and poet. Author of The Puddock
• Sir Kenneth Calman, Scottish doctor, Chief Medical Officer for Scotland then England, Vice-chancellor of Durham University; Chancellor of Glasgow University
• Andy Clark
• Roger Cowley, physicist, Professor of Experimental Philosophy at Oxford
• Tom Devine, historian
• Kenneth Dover
• Professor Sir David Edward
• James Alfred Ewing, Scottish physicist and engineer, discoverer of hysteresis, Vice-chancellor of the University of Edinburgh
• Ian Fells
• David Fergusson, Professor of Divinity at New College, University of Edinburgh
• John Fincham
• James David Forbes
• Alexander Gray, Scottish economist, translator and poet, Professor of Political Economy at the University of Aberdeen and the University of Edinburgh
• William Greenfield, Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres at Edinburgh University, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
• William Michael Herbert Greaves
• John Currie Gunn
• James E. Talmage, Geologist, Chemist, prolific author (see Jesus the Christ (book)), President of the University of Utah, Apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• Peter Higgs
• Right Reverend Richard Holloway, writer, broadcaster, Bishop of Edinburgh in the Scottish Episcopal Church
• James Hutton, regarded as the founder of modern geology
• John Mackintosh Howie
• John Jamieson
• Fleeming Jenkin
• Mstislav Keldysh
• Cargill Gilston Knott
• Chris J. Leaver, Professor of Plant Sciences at the University of Oxford
• Sir Neil MacCormick, Regius Professor of Public Law at the University of Edinburgh and Vice-president of the Scottish National Party
• Professor David W. Macdonald, zoologist
• Alexander Macfarlane, physicist, mathematician, and secretary of the Quaternion Society
• Neil Mackie, Scottish tenor, Head of Vocal Studies at the Royal College of Music
• Aubrey Manning, English zoologist and broadcaster, Professor of Natural History at the University of Edinburgh
• James Napier, Scottish writer
• Cyril Offord
• Professor Hugh Pennington, Microbiologist
• John Playfair, Scottish mathematician and physicist, Professor of Mathematics and the Natural Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh
• Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron Playfair
• Juda Hirsch Quastel
• John Randall, physicist
• Archie Roy, Professor of astronomy at the University of Glasgow and former president of the Society for Psychical Research
• Daniel Fox Sandford Former Bishop of Tasmania1883-89
• Sir Walter Scott, romantic and historical novelist (Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, The Lady of the Lake, Waverley, The Heart of Midlothian and others)
• Richard Sillitto
• John Sinclair, writer
• Adam Smith, classical economist; philosopher of the Scottish Enlightenment
• Alexander McCall Smith, Rhodesia-born Scottish novelist (The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Portuguese Irregular Verbs, The Sunday Philosophy Club, 44 Scotland Street and others), Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh
• Christopher Smout
• Sir John Struthers, anatomist and the first Regius Professor of Anatomy at the University of Aberdeen
• Stewart Sutherland, Baron Sutherland of Houndwood, Scottish Academic who served as the Vice-Chancellor and Principle for the University of Edinburgh
• Peter Guthrie Tait
• Thomas Telford, First President of the Institution of Civil Engineers
• George Thomson, Baron Thomson of Monifieth, Labour Party minister and European Commissioner
• William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, Irish-born British mathematical physicist and engineer
• Ronald Pearson Tripp, paleontologist
• Colin Vincent
• Conrad Hal Waddington
• James Watt, Scottish inventor and engineer whose improvements to the steam engine were fundamental to the Industrial Revolution
• John Bainbridge Webster, Chair of Systematic Theology at King's College, University of Aberdeen
• John Wishart (statistician)
• Charles W. J. Withers
• Ronald Selby Wright, minister of the Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh
• Crispin Wright
• Hideki Yukawa, Japanese theoretical physicist who predicted the pion and K-capture, the first Japanese to win a Nobel Prize
• Derick Thompson, Gaelic poet, academic, president of the Scottish Poetry Library
• M. M. Pattison Muir, chemist and historian of science

References

1. ^ "The Royal Society of Edinburgh". School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews. http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Societies/RSE.html. Retrieved 22 September 2010. 

External links

• Royal Society of Edinburgh Website
• MacTutor: Royal Society of Edinburgh
• MacTutor: Mathematician fellows
• Notes on the Royal Society of Edinburgh from the Scholarly Societies project, University of Waterloo Library (includes information on the journals of the society)
• List of award winners