The Buchanan Medal is awarded by the Royal Society

Royal Society

The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...

 every year "in recognition of distinguished contribution to the medical sciences generally". The award was created in 1897 from a fund to the memory of London physician Sir George Buchanan (1831–1895). It was to be awarded once every five years, but since 1990 the medal has been awarded every two years. Since its creation, it has been awarded 28 times, and unlike other Royal Society medals such as the Royal Medal

Royal Medal

The Royal Medal, also known as The Queen's Medal, is a silver-gilt medal awarded each year by the Royal Society, two for "the most important contributions to the advancement of natural knowledge" and one for "distinguished contributions in the applied sciences" made within the Commonwealth of...

, it has never been awarded to the same individual multiple times. As a result of the criteria for the medal, most of the winners have been doctors or other medical professionals; an exception was Frederick Warner

Frederick Warner (engineer)

Sir Frederick Edward Warner FRS, FREng was a British chemical engineer. He was knighted in 1968, FRS 1976, Leverhulme Medal 1978, Buchanan Medal 1982. He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering....

, an engineer who won the medal in 1982 "for his important role in reducing pollution of the River Thames and of his significant contributions to risk assessment".

One winner has also won a Nobel Prize: Barry Marshall

Barry Marshall

Barry James Marshall, AC, FRS, FAA is an Australian physician, Nobel Prize laureate in Physiology or Medicine, and Professor of Clinical Microbiology at the University of Western Australia. Marshall is well-known for proving that the bacterium Helicobacter pylori Barry James Marshall, AC, FRS, FAA...

, who was awarded the Buchanan Medal in 1998 "in recognition of his work on discovering the role of Helicobacter pylori as a cause of diseases such as duodenal ulcer, gastric ulcer, gastric cancer and gastritis-associated dyspepsia" and won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine administered by the Nobel Foundation, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the field of life science and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in his will...

 in 2005. The first winner was John Simon

John Simon (doctor)

Sir John Simon KCB, FRS, FRCS was and English pathologist, surgeon and public health officer. He was the second Chief Medical Officer for Her Majesty's Government from 1855–1876.- Biography :...

, who won his medal in 1897 "for his distinguished services as an organizer of medical sanitary administration in this country, and as a promoter of scientific research relating to public health"; the most recent winner was Peter Cresswell, who won the medal in 2010 "for his outstanding contributions to immunology, in particular to our understanding of the processing of foreign protein antigens within cells to stimulate T-cell immune responses.".

List of recipients

Year	Name	Rationale	Notes
1897		"for his distinguished services as an organizer of medical sanitary administration in this country, and as a promoter of scientific research relating to public health"
1902		"for his experimental investigations into the bacteriology and comparative pathology of vaccination"
1907		"for his services to sanitary science"	—
1912		"for his sanitary administration of the works of the Panama Canal"	—
1917		"for his contributions to preventive medicine"
1922		"for his researches and discoveries in tropical medicine"
1927		"for his statistical researches and other work in relation to public health"
1932		"for his very important theoretical and practical work on immunity, especially in relation to diphtheria antitoxin"	—
1937		"for his work in relation to public health problems in many parts of the world on behalf of the International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation"	—
1942		"for his distinguished administrative service to hygienic science and practice"
1947		"for his distinguished researches on the physiology of nutrition, especially in relation to the causation of deficiency diseases"
1952		"for his outstanding research on malaria and on the Anopheles mosquitos [sic] which transmit that disease"
1957		"for his distinguished contributions to the control of malaria"
1962		"for his long and distinguished services to the support and administration of medical and biological research"
1967		"for his distinguished work on the medical aspects of bacteriology and immunity, and for the public health laboratory service of England and Wales"
1972		"for his outstanding studies on the aetiology, prevention and treatment of disease, especially cancer"
1977		"for his leading role in the standardization and safety control of vaccines"
1982		"for his important role in reducing pollution of the River Thames and of his significant contributions to risk assessment"
1987		"for his development of high resolution NMR spectroscopy for the study of cellular energetics and cellular enzymology, and for medical diagnosis, and of the insights and advances thereby gained"	—
1990		"for his innovative studies on haemolytic disease of the newborn which culminated in new therapies leading to the elimination of this major fetal disease"
1992		"for his discovery of a lymphoma which bears his name"
1994		"in recognition of his notable contributions, over many years, to the application of molecular genetics to human medicine, in particular elucidating the many forms of molecular pathology that may underlie thalassaemias, and for his leadership in promoting the application of molecular genetics to medicine in the UK, not least as Director of the Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford."
1996		"for his contribution to vision research and his most important achievement in his discovery of the role of oxygen in the pathogenesis of retrolental fibroplasia now known as retinopathy of prematurity, together with his studies of the mechanism of hypertensive retinopathy, studies of the pathology of diabetic retinopathy and amoebic infection of the eye"
1998		"in recognition of his work on discovering the role of Helicobacter pylori as a cause of diseases such as duodenal ulcer, gastric ulcer, gastric cancer and gastritis-associated dyspepsia"
2000		"for his contribution to the foundations of understanding of the renin angiotensin system in particular through his seminal work on the isolation and determination of the structure of angiotensin, purification of renin, and subsequent studies on the control of renin release"	—
2002		"Michael Waterfield for his exceptional skill in protein biochemistry which have transformed our understanding of signal transduction, and the subversion of cellular signalling pathways in cancer"	—
2004		"in recognition of his discovery of the p53 protein and the subsequent research in which this basic discovery has been followed through to clinical application, exploiting the p53 pathway to find new treatments for cancer"	—
2006		"for his many contributions to his field, ranging from the fundamental discoveries on the cellular origin and biochemical mode of the action of calcitonin to its application in clinical practice"
2008		"for his outstanding contribution to understanding the process whereby cancers develop and in the identification of major targets for their therapeutic treatment"
2010		"for his outstanding contributions to immunology, in particular to our understanding of the processing of foreign protein antigens within cells to stimulate T-cell immune responses".

External links

• Royal Society: Buchanan Medal