Royal Society Honors Two from NIH
Two NIH scientists are among the more than 60 scientists from around the world elected as fellows and foreign members of Britain’s Royal Society who were selected for their outstanding contributions to scientific understanding.
Elected fellow was Dr. G. Marius Clore, NIH distinguished investigator and chief of the protein nuclear magnetic resonance section, Laboratory of Chemical Physics, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
Elected as a new foreign member was NIH director Dr. Francis Collins, who was cited “for his contributions to human genetics over four decades, including identifying the genetic mutation that causes cystic fibrosis and leading the landmark Human Genome Project.”
Past fellows and foreign members of the Royal Society, which began in 1660, have included Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Dorothy Hodgkin and Stephen Hawking.
The society’s motto Nullius in verba is taken to mean “take nobody’s word for it.” It is an expression, according to the society, of the determination of fellows to withstand the domination of authority and to verify all statements by an appeal to facts determined by experiment.