Bishop Hill The coming president
Sep 5, 2014 Royal Society After Paul Nurse's outburst yesterday, my thoughts turned to the end of his term as president. The Royal Society elects its leaders for a period of five years so Nurse will step down at the end of 2015.
Who, we wonder, will replace him?
One assumes that I am not the only one who has wondered about the succession; the backroom boys at the Royal are no doubt taking soundings already. The Society likes the man at the helm (thus far it's always a man) to have a Nobel prize in the display cabinet, which does rather restrict the field. I'm not aware of a list of living British laureates, but perhaps readers can suggest likely candidates. One name that occurred to me was John Sulston, the medical scientist who shares some of the millenarian views of many recent holders of the post.
Then again, a president without a Nobel would not be unprecedented, Lord Rees being the obvious example.
It will also be interesting to see if the society goes ahead with a Stalin-style election, with a single-name ballot paper under the strict control of the backroom boys. After the outrage over Prince Andrew's "election" to the fellowship, it's hard to imagine that the society would dare to do the same thing for the new president. But it's not impossible - the society is not accountable to anyone and can shrug off criticism in the same way that a bureaucrat can.
The only imaginable concession is that they might allow a ballot paper with two approved candidates. Open candidature is only a pipedream.
Bishop Hill
James Wilsdon tweets, noting that the Physical and Biological sides of the society take it in turns to provide the president, so the next one will be from the physical side. This means that a Nobel laureate is unlikely.
Reader Comments (26)
Is there a place where one can find what the RS has contributed to science as such, apart from the idea of having a scientific journal?
I'm not asking about what members have done. I'd like to know the added value of the Society, and of any of its Presidents in their role.
I remember my old Prof, the great zoologist and polymath John Z Young FRS angrily answering my question as to whether the RS advised the government: "We are scientists, we have nothing to do with those scoundrels". That was 40 years ago, times have clearly changed. JZ apparently also turned down one or two knighthoods, btw.
I suppose Freeman Dyson is out of the question?
Well that's it then. It will be Prof. Brian Cox.
Presumeably he'll be made a Lord as well.
Surely it has to be a grown-up?
Here you go, list of FRS who also have a Nobel Prize:
https://royalsociety.org/about-us/fellowship/nobel-prize-winners/
I think Sir Andre Geim is the most qualified as he is the only man to have won both a Nobel and an IgNobel prize :-)
I suggest that the post be shared by the Chuckle Brothers.
I suggest that Andre Geim is too interested in the science to get involved in politics.
I'm not sure which way round it is, but either the Chinese government has been taking lessons from the RS with regard to the next Chief Executive (Mayor) election in Hong Kong or the RS is run by the Chinese government. Either way, it's a very totalitarian system.
I don't suppose there's an FRS by name of Patient?
An experimental physicist with experience at the coalface of establishing proof beyond five SDs or otherwise a geologist with an understanding of change and cycles, please.
Prof Brian Cox is such a brilliant suggestion that it just shows what the RS has sunk to that it is not absolutely beyond the bounds of possibility......
Prince Andrew ! Why else did they make him a member?
They would prefer his father, but realise he is past his use-by date. And they certainly wouldn't want Prince Phillip, would they?
Wasn't Prince Andrew Really Useful?
ljh writes:
===================================
An experimental physicist with experience at the coalface of establishing proof beyond five SD
==================================
Uncertainty is the nature of life and decisions have to be made in the face of great uncertainty. Military commanders and medical doctors are faced with situations in which decisions of great consequences have to be made with little and uncertain information. The failure to make a decision and to make the correct decision could lead to grave consequences. However a decision must still be made.
There are two issues that I see with climate science today:
a) a scientific community that is tainted by activism and careerism that is creating sloppy and ill conceived results for a potentially very serious issue. They proclaim certainty when there research does not support such a claim.
b) skeptics who demand certainty before any action can be taken when certainty is the stuff of fiction and not the real world
So the world is faced with a plausible hypothesis of climate change and we are uncertain as to whether the effect will be benign or catastrophic. We have been provided only with sloppy results to assist in the selection of policies with which to deal with it. We have various sides that either proclaim certainty in the research when it cannot be there or demand certainty in the research.when it cannot be there.
In short we are faced with an adult problem and, as a society, lack the maturity to deal with adult problems.
ljh writes:
===================================
An experimental physicist with experience at the coalface of establishing proof beyond five SD
==================================
Uncertainty is the nature of life and decisions have to be made in the face of great uncertainty. Military commanders and medical doctors are faced with situations in which decisions of great consequences have to be made with little and uncertain information. The failure to make a decision and to make the correct decision could lead to grave consequences. However a decision must still be made.
There are two issues that I see with climate science today:
a) a scientific community that is tainted by activism and careerism that is creating sloppy and ill conceived results for a potentially very serious issue. They proclaim certainty when there research does not support such a claim.
b) skeptics who demand certainty before any action can be taken when certainty is the stuff of fiction and not the real world
So the world is faced with a plausible hypothesis of climate change and we are uncertain as to whether the effect will be benign or catastrophic. We have been provided only with sloppy results to assist in the selection of policies with which to deal with it. We have various sides that either proclaim certainty in the research when it cannot be there or demand certainty in the research.when it cannot be there.
In short we are faced with an adult problem and, as a society, lack the maturity to deal with adult problems.
ljh writes:
===================================
An experimental physicist with experience at the coalface of establishing proof beyond five SD
==================================
Uncertainty is the nature of life and decisions have to be made in the face of great uncertainty. Military commanders and medical doctors are faced with situations in which decisions of great consequences have to be made with little and uncertain information. The failure to make a decision and to make the correct decision could lead to grave consequences. However a decision must still be made.
There are two issues that I see with climate science today:
a) a scientific community that is tainted by activism and careerism that is creating sloppy and ill conceived results for a potentially very serious issue. They proclaim certainty when there research does not support such a claim.
b) skeptics who demand certainty before any action can be taken when certainty is the stuff of fiction and not the real world
So the world is faced with a plausible hypothesis of climate change and we are uncertain as to whether the effect will be benign or catastrophic. We have been provided only with sloppy results to assist in the selection of policies with which to deal with it. We have various sides that either proclaim certainty in the research when it cannot be there or demand certainty in the research.when it cannot be there.
In short we are faced with an adult problem and, as a society, lack the maturity to deal with adult problems.
Dame Julia Slingo
Yup, Slingo rings all the bells. Physicist, on-message, used to extracting huge sums of money from the taxpayer, knows all the millenarial messages. Plus she's a woman, which seems to be the thing these days. If she could discover some ethnic minority ancestors, she'd be a shoe-in.
Re Julaar: "If she could discover some ethnic minority ancestors, she'd be a shoe-in."
Neanderthal, or perhaps Cro-Magnon?
Professor Michael Kelly, FRS
Sir Alan Rudge CBE FREng FRS
If they ask me, I shall refuse. What do you take me for, I would ask, a dim-witted nervous ninny or a would-be front-man of a socialist revival? The recent occupants being where I think I was at the age of about 15, and from where I have moved on greatly simply by growing up.
I know a physicist: ...And Then There's Physics.
Ah yes, the Chuckle Brothers for their work on vector analysis. "T'me". "T'you.
whats the betting that whoever is the next president the first thing they do is a unscholarly, over simplistic documentary for the BBC about who is defending 'science.'