News

The Royal Commission is delighted to welcome Mrs Ruth Wade to the executive team as our Alumni Manager.  The Royal Commissioners are very conscious of the importance of the alumni to the charity and are determined to expand the opportunities for interaction and influence between the organisation and its community and see the appointment of a dedicated manager of Alumni relations as the first step

The 2026 Lorna Casselton Memorial Lecture, entitled "How Experimental Worm Genetics and Genomics Revealed an Ancient World of Tiny RNAs", will be given by Professor Victor Ambros (University of Massachusetts Medical School), Nobel Laureate and Professor Gary Ruvkun (Harvard Medical School), Nobel Laureate, at 5 pm on Thursday 14th May in the Mathematical Institute Lecture Theatres 1 and 2, Woodsto

Error is often framed as a limitation in physics, yet it plays a central role in how physical knowledge is produced, validated and refined. This conference will explore the dual nature of error: as both a practical challenge in measurement and experimentation, and as a productive force in the development of theory. It will discuss the establishment of the theory of error and consider examples of f

at 5 pm GMT on Wednesday 11th March 2026 in the St Cross College Lecture Theatre.Godfrey Stafford’s career as a physicist began with research in cosmic rays in the 1940s and he lived to see the discovery in 2012 of the Higgs boson at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. He made major contributions to the construction and exploitation of accelerators at the Rutherford Laboratory in the UK and was its Di

One of our alumni, Anne Desmet, has a major solo exhibition at the Escher in the Palace museum in The Hague, Netherlands. Entitled: Anne Desmet - Building Without Barriers - it opened on 20 November 2025 and continues until 15 March 2026. The dozen or so rooms in the Palace have all been completely rehung in themed groups featuring some 40 of her works alongside relevant works on related themes by

Professor Andrew Briggs has notified us of a conference that he is convening.It will be a wide-ranging discussion, with contributions from Nobel Laureate Sir Roger Penrose and neuroscientist Baroness Susan Greenfield.Details are at https://www.nature-of-reality.com/Registration is open at https://www.eventbrite.fr/e/workshop-fresh-perceptions-of-reality-tickets-1977283403888?aff=oddtdtcreator

The BLUE GARAGE Foundation is being established as a charity to help people make things, learn skills, and turn ideas into real, sustainable businesses.I founded BLUE GARAGE after 15 years of building and scaling hardware companies, most notably KwickScreen, which I created after receiving a Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 Industrial Design Studentship and Design Fellowship. That suppo

Ladies and Gentlemen, the 1851 community have been invited to participate in this year’s FST annual future leaders conference – the details of which are below.  The Royal Commission has worked with the Foundation for Science and Technology in past, sponsoring a number of their events and will be supporting the event this year – the Foundation provides a hugely valuable link between policy makers a

on Saturday 22nd November 2025 from 10.30 am - 5.00 pm GMTThis conference will examine the physical history of navigation, beginning with how ancient civilisations navigated by the stars and other celestial bodies, then considering navigation by land, sea and air using various instruments (prior to modern technology) and concluding with the developments in modern technology for navigation includin

The Royal Commission is always on the lookout for ways to support new innovation and entrepreneurship that emerges from our alumni’s work and research.  To this end the Mayor of London has launched a new 'Frontier Innovation Fellowship' during the recent London Tech Week. This is a new national programme to support potentially world-changing UK tech at an early stage.  The Fellowship enables L&P t

Please help us attract a diverse group of applicants by forwarding this Industrial Fellowship opportunity to graduates in science, engineering, medicine or design. ****With our Industrial Fellowships, companies get the chance to craft a bespoke PhD from the ground up that supports company ambition as well as individual interests, and forge strong links with leading academics, to share access to ex

Please help us attract a diverse group of applicants by forwarding on this Fellowship in the Built Environment opportunity. We welcome applications from those at a more advanced stage in their careers: post-graduates, researchers, practitioners or professionals on a career break.We have a post on our Linkedin page and I have included some information below.***Apply now for the 2025 Fellowship in t

Announcing an exhibition of 55 watercolours of Venice by Carole Robb at the University Women's Club, Mayfair, London Saturday 7th June, 202511am - 4pm___________________________________________________________ Please join me at the University Women's Club, 2 Audley Square, Mayfair, London, for an exhibition of 55 watercolours of Venice by Carole Robb. The exhibition will accompany her painting The

This talk has been brought to our attention - Friday 26th September 2025 6pm online for the Friends of the Gordon Russell Design Museumby Susan Bennett, MA, Honorary Secretary, William Shipley Group for RSA History. Tickets can be booked at: https://shorturl.at/e3K2SThe distinction of Royal Designer for Industry (RDI) was instituted in 1936 by the Royal Society of Arts in acknowledgement of the im

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dr Harriet Stanway-Gordon (1851 Research Fellow 2024) is looking for support from the 1851 community.  She is leading an initiative called “Faces of Science” which seeks to showcase the human side of science, mixing a few things together: celebrating the community we have but also "demystifying" science as a field (and hopefully as a result improving research culture and wide

Ladies and Gentlemen, an interesting event for early-career designers, scientists, and engineers with 3 to 15 years of professional experience, hosted by the RDI at Dartington Hall, Devon and sponsored by the Royal Commission.  A weekend to explore and contribute to a wide and free flowing agenda, an opportunity for reflection and self discovery.  It is an experience that may prove to be on the ed

Preview: Tuesday 13th May, 6-8pmTom Rowland at GPS Gallery, 36 Great Pulteney Street, London, W1F 0LP13th - 24th May, 2025Tom Rowland presents Stato da Màr, recent paintings by Carole Robb (1943) in an exhibition at GPS Gallery in Soho, London, and the artist’s first exhibition in the UK since her solo exhibition at The South London Gallery in 1983. Robb has exhibited extensively in New York since

This conference will examine the history of measurement, starting from the ancient world and following the evolution of measuring methodologies and the development of measuring instruments over the eras up to the present day. It will discuss the establishment of the metric system and consider examples of famous experiments across the centuries. The conference will conclude with a philosophical per

The 2025 Lorna Casselton Memorial Lecture, entitled "The Role of Fungi in Solving Planetary Crises", will be given by Dr Andrea Hinwood (Chief Scientist, United Nations Environment Programme), at 5 pm on Thursday 15th May in the Mathematical Institute Lecture Theatres 1 and 2, Woodstock Road, Oxford. The Lecture will also be livestreamed.Admission is free, but booking is required via the website:h

Ladies and Gentlemen, the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee is launching an inquiry into the financing and scaling of UK Science and Technology and as many of you are in a prime position to offer expert comment and observation I thought you might like the opportunity to contribute – please see below the details if you would like to do so.Warmest regardsJohnToday, the House of Lords S