Professor Bonnie Bassler awarded world’s oldest scientific prize for research on how bacteria talk to each other

Renowned microbiologist, Professor Bonnie Bassler, has been named this year’s recipient of the Royal Society’s Copley Medal – the world’s oldest scientific prize.

She is among 27 Royal Society medal and award winners announced for their outstanding contributions to scientific discovery, public engagement and research culture.

The Copley Medal is the Royal Society’s most prestigious prize, awarded for sustained, outstanding achievements in any field of science. It was first awarded in 1731 and previous recipients include Dorothy Hodgkin, Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Charles Darwin. The medal is accompanied by a gift of £25,000.

Professor Bonnie Bassler’s research has revealed how singled-celled bacteria are able to act as a group by communicating and coordinating with each other through a process known as quorum sensing. Her discoveries are paving the way for therapies to combat disease-causing bacteria.

Professor Bonnie Bassler FRS, winner of the Copley Medal, said:

“The prize came as a thrilling surprise. I am deeply honoured, especially given the long history and central importance of the Copley prize to scientific progress. A cliché, but it is both humbling and inspiring to have one’s name on the same list as the world’s most celebrated scientists. More personally, the prize is a marvellous validation of my team’s creativity and their fearlessness in pursuing big questions.

“Importantly, I believe this choice for the prize highlights the worthiness of basic, curiosity-driven science, as such research has invariably led to applications vital to human well-being.”

Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society, said:

“I am delighted that the 2026 Copley Medal has been awarded to Professor Bonnie Bassler. Her exciting discovery research has transformed our understanding of how bacteria communicate with each other. This could lead to the development of drugs that act as alternatives to antibiotics by disrupting this communication system. This well-deserved award recognises her invaluable contribution to science, as well as the extraordinary creativity with which she approaches research.”

Other recipients this year include Dame Maggie Aderin, who has been awarded the David Attenborough Award and Lecture for her innovative public outreach work that has impacted millions, and Dr Audrey Cameron OBE, who receives the Research Culture Award for her work to advance the use of British Sign Language (BSL) in STEM education.

The Royal Society Africa Prize, awarded to a scientist based in Africa who is making an innovative contribution to science that contributes to capacity building on the continent, goes to Professor Clive Gray for his pioneering research into the immunological impacts of HIV on maternal and child health. Professor Fiona Wood is awarded one of three Royal Medals for the development of ’spray-on skin’ that has transformed the lives of burn victims globally.

About the full list of 2026 awardees, Sir Paul Nurse said:

“The recipients of this year’s medals and awards have made exceptional contributions to science and research culture. Their work has helped further our understanding of the world around us and will inspire generations of scientists to come.

“Celebrating excellence in science is core to the Society’s mission. I offer my congratulations to all the 2026 recipients.”

The full list of 2026 winnersPremier awardsCopley Medal

Professor Bonnie Bassler FRS, for her discovery of the universality of chemical communication among bacteria, and for her dogma-overturning idea that interfering with bacterial communication could form the basis of completely novel anti-bacterials.

Bakerian Medal and Lecture

Professor Karen Heywood OBE FRS, for her outstanding contributions as a physical oceanographer who has documented how the Southern Ocean interacts with the Antarctic continent.

Croonian Medal and Lecture

Dame Janet Thornton DBE FMedSci FRS, for pioneering work in protein structural and functional bioinformatics.

Royal Medal (Physical)

Professor John Pyle CBE FRS, for his foundational and policy-relevant contributions to the understanding of stratospheric and tropospheric ozone via major advances in the numerical modelling of the atmosphere, his insightful interpretation of atmospheric measurements and his leadership of major field campaigns.

Royal Medal (Biological)

Professor Lewis Kay FRS, for his remarkable contribution to understand and quantify protein dynamics and its relevance to protein function.

Royal Medal (Applied)

Professor Fiona Wood AO, for her pioneering work resulting in the invention of spray-on-skin, an innovation that has transformed the lives of burns patients globally.

Prize lecturesFrancis Crick Medal and Lecture

Dr Kelly Nguyen, for her ground-breaking discoveries into the molecular mechanisms of telomere maintenance.

Royal Society Africa Prize

Professor Clive Gray, for pioneering research into the immunological impacts of HIV on maternal and child health, particularly the mechanisms affecting HIV-exposed uninfected children.

Milner Award and Lecture

Professor Monika Henzinger, for pioneering research in areas including efficient algorithms, differential privacy, web information retrieval, and systems profiling, and having a long-lasting impact in academia and industry.

Environment Medal and Lecture

Professor Paul Bates CBE FRS, for developing improved flood modelling approaches, including advances in shallow water equations and remote sensing, that are widely used in flood-risk management internationally.

Michael Faraday Prize and Lecture

Professor Anjali Goswami FRS, for her transformational research in vertebrate evolution and her exceptional public engagement, particularly her dedication to championing and advocating for women and people from minoritised communities within science and research.

Royal Society David Attenborough Award and Lecture

Dame Maggie Aderin MBE, for her commitment to widening participation, reshaping public understanding of space science and scientific discovery, and innovative outreach that has impacted millions.

Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Medal and Lecture

Professor Gregory Radick, for his exemplary work as a historian and philosopher of science, and his contributions to our understanding of genetics and evolutionary theory.

Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award and Lecture

Dr Patricia Rodríguez Maciá, for her achievements in developing new artificial metalloenzymes and her proposed outreach and mentorship programme that engages secondary school girls from underrepresented communities.

Ferrier Medal and Lecture

Professor Kenneth Harris, for his revolutionary contributions to neuroscience by unifying experimental neurophysiology with advanced analytical methods, and for pioneering the technologies and computational methods that allow recording from thousands of neurons.

AwardsBuchanan Medal

Dr Ketan Patel FMedSci FRS, for the discovery that two simple aldehydes (acetaldehyde and formaldehyde) are major sources of endogenous DNA damage, and that a fundamental two-tier protection system prevents these reactive metabolites from disrupting essential physiological processes.

Darwin Medal

Professor Michael Benton OBE FRS, for his contribution to many aspects of palaeontological science, as well as authoring the standard textbooks in the field, popular science and children’s books.

Royal Society Research Culture Award

Dr Audrey Cameron OBE, for groundbreaking contributions to both science education and accessibility for the Deaf community. Cameron has significantly advanced the use of British Sign Language (BSL) in STEM education, particularly the compilation of over 4,000 signs for STEM with BSL definitions and examples.

Royal Society Athena Prize

NU STEM, for their work promoting equity in STEM and strengthening the (research) evidence base around effective STEM Education and Engagement.

Royal Society Armourers & Brasiers’ Company Prize

Professor Charlotte Williams OBE FRS, for innovative materials science for sustainable oxygenated polymers as plastics, thermoplastic elastomers, ionomers and polyelectrolyte binders.

Hauksbee Award

Stuart Naismith, for his entrepreneurial approach to science education, despite having no science background, dedicating his time to developing his delivery of science throughout his school and beyond.

Davy Medal

Professor Douglas Stephan FRS, for his discipline-changing discovery and elaboration of the concept of ‘frustrated Lewis pairs’ that revolutionised catalysis, by introducing main-group reactivity and that became a globally embraced paradigm for new reactivity across the periodic table, leading to innovations and applications in inorganic, organic materials, and radical chemistry, microfluidics, heterogeneous catalysis, and bioinorganic chemistry.

Gabor Medal

Professor Sarah Teichmann FMedSci FRS, for fundamental contributions to deciphering the molecular and cellular basis of living systems by combining biophysics, genomics and data science.

Rumford Medal

Professor Laura Herz FRS, for her outstanding research on the physics of light interaction and energy conversion in semiconductors, including metal-halide perovskites, nanomaterials and molecules, which has had profound implications for solar cell development.

Sylvester Medal

Professor Wendelin Werner FRS, for playing an instrumental role in the development of the Schramm-Loewner evolution, a random curve which describes the scaling limit of many models from statistical mechanics in two dimensions.

Hughes Medal

Professor Iain McCulloch FRS, for innovative advancements in the field of energy through the discovery of new organic semiconducting materials and formulations for photovoltaics and solar fuels.

Mullard Medal

Professor Quentin Pankhurst, for pioneering leadership in establishing the field of Healthcare Biomagnetics which has resulted in profound scientific, clinical, and economic impact in the UK and internationally; and established the UK as a global centre for biomagnetic medical technologies.