送交者: hehe 于 2005-5-28, 00:48:46:
New Royal Society snub for Greenfield
David Adam, science correspondent
Saturday May 28, 2005
The Guardian
Britain's most famous female scientist has been snubbed by the UK's elite academic club for the second year running. The Royal Society yesterday released the list of the 44 new fellows it was welcoming into the world's oldest scientific academy - and Susan Greenfield was not on it.
The society's decision last year not to grant a fellowship to Lady Greenfield, a professor of pharmacology at the University of Oxford and director of the Royal Institution, provoked controversy after her nomination was leaked amid accusations of a whispering campaign to discredit her.
One unnamed fellow said at the time that Isaac Newton would "turn in his grave" if Professor Greenfield was elected because it would deny a more deserving scientist the accolade.
The list of candidates nominated for fellowship is usually confidential, and Prof Greenfield's was the only name made public last year. She would not comment on the decision yesterday.
The Royal Society said: "This year there were 564 candidates and they go to 10 committees charged with picking the 44 most excellent candidates. It's not a rejection because you remain on the list for seven years and you may be elected in any one of them. Just because you don't make it one year, that makes no comment on the other years."
Being able to put the letters FRS after their name is the equivalent for British scientists of a lifetime achievement award at the Oscars. Past fellows include Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein. Present fellows include the Cambridge University cosmologist Stephen Hawking and world wide web inventor Tim Berners-Lee.
Fellows elected this year include Harry Bryden, a professor of oceanography at the University of Southampton, and John Collinge of University College London, who demonstrated that the lethal brain disease new variant CJD is caused by BSE in cattle.
Two women were elected: Uta Frith, deputy director of the Institute of Cognitive Neurosciences at UCL, and Deborah Charlesworth, a plant geneticist at the University of Edinburgh.
Bob May, president of the Royal Society, said: "These new fellows are among the best scientists in the UK and Commonwealth. They follow in the footsteps of the august scientists of the last three and a half centuries while representing cutting edge science in the UK today."