/ Medals and awards

Davy Medal

This medal is awarded to an outstanding researcher in the field of chemistry.

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  • Winners announcement

The award

The Davy Medal is awarded for outstanding contributions in the field of chemistry. The medal is named after Humphry Davy FRS, the chemist and inventor of the Davy Lamp, and was first awarded in 1877. The medal is of bronze, is awarded annually and is accompanies by a gift of £2,000.

Eligibility

The Davy medal is open to UK/Commonwealth/Republic of Ireland citizens or those who have been residents for three or more years. There are no restrictions on career stage and nominations will remain valid and shall be considered by the award selection committee throughout three nomination cycles. Teams or groups may now be nominated for this award.

Nominations are open

Nominations are now open and will close on 20 February 2026.

Spotlight on 2025 winner

Professor Andrew Cooper FRS was awarded the Davy Medal in 2025. He is Director of the Materials Innovation Factory (MIF) and the Leverhulme Research Centre for Functional Materials Design. He is Co-Director of AIchemy, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) hub for AI in chemistry.

Professor Cooper’s research is at the interface of chemistry, robotics and artificial intelligence (AI).

Speaking about his research, Professor Cooper said:

“In 2020, we built the world’s first ‘mobile robotic chemist’, a robot that can carry out chemistry experiments, making its own decisions about what to do next. This robot is more than 200 times faster than manual approaches because it works 24/7 and makes almost instantaneous decisions, allowing it to do the equivalent of a PhD’s-worth of experiments in a week.”

Responding to winning the Davy Medal, Professor Cooper said:

“I hope this prize will raise the profile of our work and lead to new partnerships and collaborations, for example with teams working on next-generation large language models (LLMs) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.

This prize reflects the work of a diverse team of collaborators over many years who have believed in the long-term value of creating new digital approaches to chemistry research. This can be a hard path, particularly in the early stages, and I am fortunate to have had colleagues who were not afraid to pursue speculative and risky ideas.”

2025 winner

  • Professor Andrew Cooper FRS

    Professor Andrew Cooper FRS

    The Davy Medal 2025 is awarded to Professor Andrew Cooper FRS for creating innovative digital approaches to chemistry that combine first-principles computational chemistry, autonomous robots and artificial intelligence. Professor Andrew Cooper FRS would like to thank Professor Graeme Day for his contributions to their work on computational materials design.

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Past winners

  • Professor Véronique Gouverneur FRS
    Awarded in 2024

    Professor Véronique Gouverneur FRS

    For contributions to the field of fluorine chemistry with applications in both medicine and positron emission tomography imaging.
  • Margaret Brimble
    Awarded in 2023

    Professor Dame Margaret Brimble CNZM FRS

    For outstanding contributions to organic chemistry with wide-ranging applications across the life sciences.
  • Peter Sadler
    Awarded in 2022

    Professor Peter Sadler FRS

    For pioneering the research field of medicinal inorganic chemistry, "Metals in Medicine", and the design of new metallodrugs with novel mechanisms of action.
  • Malcolm Levitt
    Awarded in 2021

    Professor Malcolm Levitt FRS

    For his contributions to the theory and methodology of nuclear magnetic resonance, including composite pulses, symmetry-based recoupling, long-lived nuclear spin states, and the study of endofullerenes by electromagnetic spectroscopies and neutron scattering.
  • Benjamin David
    Awarded in 2020

    Professor Benjamin Davis FMedSci FRS

    For inventing powerful chemical methods that directly manipulate complex biological molecules, enabling elucidation and control of biological function and mechanism in vitro and in vivo, beyond the limits of genetics
  • Varinder Aggarwal
    Awarded in 2019

    Professor Varinder Aggarwal FRS

    For his ground-breaking methods coupling boronic esters creating 3-D architectures with full control over shape and functionality with broad ranging applications across the sciences.
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    Awarded in 2018

    Professor John Pyle CBE FRS

    For pioneering leadership in understanding the depletion of the global ozone layer by halocarbons, particularly coupling between chemistry, radiation, and dynamics, and the special vulnerability of Arctic ozone.
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    Awarded in 2017

    Professor Matthew Rosseinsky OBE FRS

    For his advances in the design and discovery of functional materials, integrating the development of new experimental and computational techniques.
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    Awarded in 2016

    Professor Stephen Mann FRS

    For distinguished contributions to the chemistry of bio-mineralization and for pioneering the bioinspired synthesis and self-assembly of functional nanostructures and hybrid nanoscale objects.
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    Awarded in 2015

    Professor Gideon Davies FMedSci FRS

    For his field-defining work in determining the reaction chemistry of enzyme-catalysed carbohydrate transformations with major applications in medicine and biotechnology.
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    Awarded in 2014

    Dame Clare Grey DBE FRS

    For further pioneering applications of solid state nuclear magnetic resonance to materials of relevance to energy and the environment.
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    Awarded in 2013

    Professor Graham Hutchings CBE FREng FRS

    For the discovery of catalysis by gold and for his seminal contributions to this new field of chemistry.