Ri Professors

From botany to astronomy, a list of past Ri Professorships.

Professors of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry

Click on the links to access more information about each person.

1799–1801    Thomas Garnett

1801–1803    Thomas Young

Other Professorships

Emeritus Professor of Science, Culture and Society

2015–   Gail Cardew

Professor of History of Science

2004–2019   Frank AJL James

Professors of Mathematics

1983–1995   Erik Christopher Zeeman

2000–           Christopher J Budd

Professor of Mechanics

1817–1829   John Millington

Professor of Metal Physics

1957–1978   Ronald King

Professor of Natural History

1826–1829   John Harwood

Professor of Science and Enterprise

2002–          Al Richardson

Professors of Solid State Chemistry

1986–2000   Anthony Kevin Cheetham

2001–2007   Paul Francis McMillan

Professor of Experimental Medicine

1977–1982   Peter Brian Medawar

Professors of Experimental Physics

1977–1988   Charles Alfred Taylor

1989–1994   Alfred Brian Pippard

1995–2002   Arnold Wolfendale

1999–           Colin John Humphreys

Readers

Readers in Crystallography

1954–1968   Max Ferdinand Perutz 

1954–1968   John Cowdery Kendrew

Readers in History of Science

1970–1985   Frank Greenaway

1997–2004   Frank AJL James

View the full list of past Ri Officers and Staff

View past Directors of the DFRL

Professors of Chemistry

1802–1812   Humphry Davy 

1813–1852   William Thomas Brande 

1863–1868   Edward Frankland

1963–1966   George, Baron Porter of Luddenham 

1986–1988   John Meurig Thomas 

1991–1994   Peter Day 

1994–2002   John Meurig Thomas

Honorary and Emeritus Professors

1813–1823   Humphry Davy 

1852–1866   William Thomas Brande 

1887–1893   John Tyndall 

1905–1919   John William Strutt, 3rd Lord Rayleigh 

1921–1940   Joseph John Thomson 

1963–1964   John Theodore Cuthbert Moore-Brabazon 

1966–1970   William Lawrence Bragg 

1978–2000   Ronald King

1988–2002  George, Baron Porter of Luddenham 

2000–2011   Leonard Shaw

Professors of Natural Philosophy

1831–1837   William Ritchie

1853–1887   John Tyndall 

1887–1905   John William Strutt, 3rd Lord Rayleigh 

1905–1920   Joseph John Thomson

1921–1937   Ernest, Baron Rutherford of Nelson 

1938–1953   William Lawrence Bragg 

1960–1961   Ronald Sydney Nyholm

1980–1988   David Phillips 

1988–2008   Charles Richard Arthur Catlow

Fullerian Professors of Chemistry

1833–1867   Michael Faraday 

1868–1873   William Odling

1874–1877   John Hall Gladstone 

1877–1923   James Dewar 

1923–1942   William Henry Bragg 

1942–1946   Henry Hallett Dale 

1946–1949   Eric Keightley Rideal 

1950–1952   Edward Neville da Costa Andrade 

1954–1966   William Lawrence Bragg 

1966–1988   George, Baron Porter of Luddenham 

1988–1994   John Meurig Thomas 

1994–2008   Peter Day 

2008–2020   Quentin Pankhurst

Fullerian Professors of Physiology and Comparative Anatomy

1834–1837   Peter Mark Roget 

1837–1838   Robert Edmond Grant

1841–1844   Thomas Rymer Jones

1844–1848   William Benjamin Carpenter

1848–1851   William Withey Gull

1851–1855   Thomas Wharton Jones

1855–1858   Thomas Henry Huxley 

1858–1862   Richard Owen 

1862–1865   John Marshall

1865–1869   Thomas Henry Huxley 

1869–1872   Michael Foster

1872–1875   William Rutherford

1875–1878   Alfred Henry Garrod

1878–1881   Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer

1881–1884   John Gray McKendrick

1884–1888   Arthur Gamgee

1888–1891   George John Romanes

1891–1894   Victor Alexander Haden Horsley

1894–1897   Charles Stewart

1897–1898   Augustus Désiré Waller

1898–1901   Edwin Ray Lankester

1901–1904   Allan Macfadyen

1904–1906   Louis Compton Miall

1906–1909   William Stirling

1909–1912   Frederick Walker Mott

1912–1915   William Bateson

1915–1918   Charles Sherrington 

1918–1924   Arthur Keith 

1924–1927   Joseph Barcroft

1927–1930   Julian Sorell Huxley

1930–1933   John Burdon Sanderson Haldane

1933–1935   Grafton Elliot Smith

1935–1937   Edward Mellanby

1937–1940   Frederick Keeble

1941–1944   Jack Cecil Drummond

1944–1947   James Gray

1947–1953   Edward James Salisbury

1953–1957   Harold Munro Fox

1957–1961   John Zachary Young

1961–1967   Richard John Harrison

1967–1973   Andrew Fielding Huxley 

1973–1979   Max Ferdinand Perutz 

1979–1985   David Chilton, Baron Phillips of Ellesmere 

1985–1991   John Bertrand Gurdon

1991–1999   Anne Laura McLaren

1999–2009   Susan Adele, Baroness Greenfield of Ot Moor

The Royal Institution is closed 19 March

The Ri is closed this week on Tuesday 19 March.