PRESENTATIONS OF the Royal Medal and the ieee/rse james clerk maxwell award by HER ROYAL HIGHNESS

THE PRINCESS ROYAL KG KT Hon FRSE

Friday 9 December 2016 WELCOME it is a very great pleasure to welcome hrh princess anne to the royal society of edinburgh to present this society’s royal medal and the ieee/rse James clerk maxwell award. these are our highest accolades. they reflect the enlightenment spirit of the rse’s royal charter of 1783 and its remit to advance learning and useful knowledge. the royal medals were created to mark the millennium, and have been awarded since then with the express approval of her majesty the Queen. the James clerk maxwell award, also being presented today, is a joint award with the ieee. it was created in 2006 and recognises ground-breaking work by those who follow in maxwell’s footsteps. James clerk maxwell was one of our outstanding former Fellows and his statue now stands a short distance from the society’s premises, at the end of george street. this year’s royal medallists are sir angus Deaton and professor ; both have made truly exceptional contributions to their areas. so too this year’s maxwell medallist, professor geoffrey hinton, has excelled in his field. they are all worthy recipients of these awards. professor hough will be presented with his medal today. sir angus Deaton is in stockholm, in connection with the nobel prize awards and cannot be here today; he received his royal medal here last month. professor geoffrey hinton, sadly, is not able to be with us either; his medal will be received on his behalf by the president of the ieee, professor barry shoop. We greatly appreciate her royal highness’s interest in the royal society of edinburgh and are especially happy to welcome her here today to present these medals.

Professor Dame cbe Frs mria presiDent oF the royal society oF eDinburgh PROGRAMME

11.00 am medallists, Fellows and guests seated in Wolfson lecture theatre

presentation of medals by Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal

the ieee/rse James clerk maxwell medal to: Professor Geoffrey Hinton (received on his behalf by Professor Barry Shoop, President IEEE)

the royal medal to: Professor James Hough OBE FRS FRSE

12 noon Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal meets the medallists and their guests in the upper gallery

12 noon Fellows and guests go to the Wellcome rooms

12.15 pm reception in the Wellcome rooms

12.50 pm lunch for medallists, Fellows and guests in the Wellcome rooms

2.00 pm Departures ROYAL MEDALLIST 2016

professor Jamese hough obe Frs Frse

Professor James Hough oBe frs frse For over 45 years, professor Jim hough has been at the forefront of the effort to confirm the existence of gravitational waves, predicted by einstein one hundred years ago. the challenge was epic – it involved detecting and measuring a movement less than one million millionth the width of a human hair. over the years, Jim has pioneered novel technologies in laser interferometry – techniques which are also finding practical application in engineering and medical equipment. Jim led the institute for gravitational research, in the , until 2009. he played a major role in the development of the high-technology uK/german detector geo 600, and the much larger advanced ligo. he was also the principal uK proposer of lisa (a space-based gravitational wave detector); lisa pathfinder was launched a year ago and, recently, the team he leads won the arthur c clarke award for this work. in February 2016, it was announced that the ligo/Virgo scientific collaboration (which includes the glasgow group) had made the first direct detection of gravitational waves. these came from the merger of two massive black holes about 1.3 billion light years away. today, we stand poised at the start of gravitational wave astronomy, opening up a new way to observe the universe and with developments in progress for even more sensitive detectors, both on the ground and in space. Jim continues to influence international planning for the future, while leading new research and continuing to train many generations of younger scientists.

Jim hough has been recognised by an impressive number of professional Fellowships and honours, including an obe for services to science in 2013. he is indeed one of the world’s most distinguished physicists and one of the true pioneers of gravitational wave physics and astronomy, and is a worthy recipient of an rse royal medal. ROYAL MEDALLIST 2016

professor sir angus Deaton Fba honFrse

Professor sir angus stewart Deaton fBa Honfrse Dwight D eisenhower Professor of International affairs and Professor of economics and International affairs, emeritus, Princeton university angus Deaton, born and brought up in edinburgh, was the sole winner of the 2015 nobel prize in economic sciences. the design of economic policy to promote welfare and reduce poverty requires an understanding of individual consumption choices. more than anyone else, angus Deaton has enhanced this understanding. by linking detailed individual choices and aggregate outcomes, his research has helped transform the fields of microeconomics, macroeconomics and development economics. in each of these three fields, he has provided answers to key questions. most recently, angus Deaton has highlighted how reliable measures of individual household consumption levels can be used to uncover the mechanisms behind economic development. his research has uncovered important pitfalls when comparing the extent of poverty across time and place. his focus on household surveys has helped transform development economics from a theoretical field based on aggregate data to an empirical field based on detailed individual data. it is because of his answers to these fundamental questions that the royal swedish academy of sciences awarded the 2015 nobel prize in economic sciences to angus Deaton “for his analysis of consumption, poverty, and welfare.” among his many other international and national honours, he is a corresponding Fellow of the british academy, a Fellow of the american philosophical society, and of the econometric society. he was elected to the national academy of sciences in 2015. he holds honorary doctorates from universities including edinburgh, st andrews, rome, university college london and brown university. it is for his outstanding career in economics that sir angus Deaton is being awarded a royal society of edinburgh royal medal. sir angus was presented with his royal medal at the rse on monday 10 october 2016 by rse president, Dame Jocelyn bell burnell. on that occasion, he was also welcomed as an honorary Fellow of the rse. Following the presentation, he delivered the David hume institute lecture. THE ROYAL MEDALS

her majesty the Queen awarded the royal medals for the first time in 2000. as the royal medals recognise achievement in all intellectual fields, it was decided to unify them by commissioning one design for all three medals. inspired by symbols on the society’s coat of arms, the distinguished designer and engraver, malcolm appleby, translated images of the royal crown, radiant sun and stag and deer hound. ROYAL MEDALLISTS 2000 –2015 the royal medals were presented for the in 2002 hrh the princess royal first time in July 2000 , when her majesty presented royal medals at a Jubilee the Queen awarded them, in person, at Dinner ceremony held in the signet the royal society of edinburgh to: library to: • Professor sir Kenneth murray frs • Professor sir alfred cuschieri frse frse for his groundbreaking work in for his outstanding contribution to the developing a vaccine for hepatitis b, practice of medicine and pioneering improving healthcare world-wide. developments in minimal access or professor murray died in 2013. ‘keyhole’ surgery. • Professor Peter Higgs frs frse • Professor John r mallard oBe for offering a key to the problem of the frse for his outstanding, pioneering origin of mass. the higgs boson has been work in the field of medical imaging and a crucial step towards a unified theory of diagnosis; developing two of the most the forces of nature. important diagnostic technologies of the • The rt Hon The lord Perry of 20th century, namely nuclear medicine Walton oBe frs frse for his and nuclear magnetic resonance imaging outstanding career in science and (nmri). education, and for his pioneering work • Professor sir alan Peacock Dsc fBa in developing the open university, frse for his outstanding contribution which has been a model for similar to social science and public policy; institutions around the world. having achieved international distinction lord perry died in 2003. on a range of fiscal issues where he has enhanced our understanding of key problems in both taxation and public in 2001 hrh the Duke of edinburgh expenditure. presented royal medals at the palace sir alan died in 2014. of holyroodhouse to: • Professor sir James Black om frs Hon frse for his discovery and in 2003 hrh the Duke of edinburgh development of two blockbuster drugs: presented royal medals at the rse to: the renowned “ β-blocker” drugs, namely • Professor sir michael atiyah om propanolol and cimetidine. PPrs Honfrse for his profound and sir James died in 2010. beneficial effect on the development of • Professor Tom Devine oBe fBa mathematics and science in the uK and frse HonmrIa for his distinguished europe. and highly acclaimed work on irish and • lord mackay of clashfern KT Pc Qc scottish economic and social history which frse for his outstanding contributions impacted upon the ‘peace process’. to scots law and public service, both • Professor Ian scott frs frse within the uK and internationally. for his revolutionary work on the way in • Professor sir Paul nurse frs which vitamin b12, the essential life pig - Honfrse for his outstanding ments chlorophyll and heme, and the im - contribution to research, in portant anti-tumour agent particular its relevance to cancer, in taxol, are produced. which he has become a leading figure professor scott died in 2007. nationally and internationally. ROYAL MEDALLISTS 2000 –2015 in 2004 (then) rse president, lord in 2007 hrh the Duke of edinburgh sutherland of houndwood, presented presented royal medals at edinburgh's royal medals at the rse to: telford college to: • Professor sir Philip cohen frs • Professor sir David carter frcse frse for his outstanding contribution frcs frcPsG frcPe Honfacs to life sciences. HonfrcsI frse for his outstanding • Professor sir neil maccormick contributions to life sciences as a frse fBa Qc for his outstanding surgeon, a clinical academic and an contribution to academic life in outspoken leader in the field both and internationally, particularly in the field nationally and internationally. of legal philosophy. • Professor John laver cBe fBa sir neil died in 2009. frse for his outstanding contributions • Professor robin milner frs frse to the humanities and social sciences, for his outstanding contributions to particularly in the field of phonetics, and software engineering which have changed his inspired academic leadership. the face of modern computer science. • sir Thomas mcKillop frs frse for professor milner died in 2010. his outstanding contributions to business and public service in scotland and internationally, particularly in the fields in 2005 (then) rse president, lord of biotechnology and finance. sutherland of houndwood presented royal medals at the rse to: • Professor sir David edward KcmG in 2008 hrh the Duke of edinburgh Qc Pc frse for his outstanding presented royal medals at the palace contribution to the law, both in the of holyroodhouse to: european union and in scotland; to the • Professor roger fletcher frs frse legal profession in scotland; and for his for his outstanding contribution to contribution to public life. mathematics and software development. • Professor William Hill oBe frs the reputation of applied and frse for his outstanding achievements computational mathematics in scotland in the field of life sciences. has benefited enormously from his presence. professor Fletcher died in 2016. in 2006 (then) rse president, • right reverend richard Holloway professor sir michael atiyah, presented frse who has made an outstanding royal medals at the rse to: contribution to the cultural life of • Professor sir John Ball frs frse scotland through his public debates on for his outstanding contributions to ethics and theology and by promoting, and applied mathematics and his public direct involvement in, public policy issues . service to the international mathematics • Professor sir David lane frs frse community. for his outstanding contribution to cancer • sir David Jack cBe frs frse research and his commitment to for his outstanding contribution to the developing new treatments, along with pharmaceutical industry. the vital part he is playing in developing sir David died in 2011. a knowledge-led economy in scotland. ROYAL MEDALLISTS 2000 –2015 in 2009 hrh the Duke of edinburgh • Professor s Desmond smith oBe presented royal medals at the rse to: frs frse for his outstanding • Professor sir James mirrlees fBa contribution to physics research. Honfrse for his outstanding contribution to economic theory which in 2012 hrh the Duke of edinburgh has had a global impact on economic presented royal medals at the rse to: development. • Professor sir edwin mellor southern • Professor Wilson sibbett cBe frs KB frs Hon frse for his oustanding for his outstanding contributions frse contribution to . to physics in scotland and scottish • Dr David milne oBe frse science, through his chairmanship of the for his outstanding contribution to scottish science advisory committee. business and commerce in scotland. • Professor cBe frs frse fmedsci for her outstanding contribution to cancer research. in 2013 hrh the Duke of edinburgh presented royal medals at the rse to: • sir John cadogan cBe frs frse in 2010 hrh the Duke of edinburgh flsW for his outstanding contribution presented royal medals at the rse to: to organic chemistry. • Dr James macmillan cBe frse for • Professor michael a J ferguson cBe his outstanding contribution to music frs frse fmedsci for his outstanding in scotland and beyond. contribution to the field of parasitology. • Professor sir fraser stoddart frs • sir Ian Wood cBe frse for his Honfrse for his outstanding outstanding contribution to business and contribution to chemistry, particularly commerce in scotland. the area of molecular nanotechnology.

in 2014 (then) president sir John in march 2011 (then) president lord arbuthnott mria presented royal Wilson of tillyorn presented a royal medals to: medal to: • Professor sir Thomas W B Kibble • Professor noreen murray cBe frs cBe frs for his outstanding frse for her outstanding contribution contribution to the research and to our understanding of bacterial host discovery of the mechanism that defence systems and her leading role in the gives mass to elementary particles. development of gene cloning technology. sir thomas died in 2016. professor murray died in may 2011. • Professor richard G m morris cBe in august 2011 hrh the Duke of frs frse fmedsci for his outstanding edinburgh presented royal medals contributions to neuroscience. at the rse to: • Baroness Helena Kennedy of the shaws Qc for her outstanding contribution no royal medals were awarded in 2015 . to human rights and civil liberties, access to education, arts and ethics. IEEE/RSE JAMES CLERK MAXWELL AWARD 2016 professor geoffrey hinton Frs

Professor Geoffrey Hinton frs professor geoffrey hinton is a Fellow of the royal society and recipient of the ieee neural network pioneer award (1998); hinton is a Distinguished emeritus professor with the Department of computer science at the university of toronto, toronto, ontario, canada, and a Distinguished researcher at google inc. in mountain View, ca, usa. he was presented with the ieee/rse James clerk maxwell award for 2016 at the ieee honors ceremony on saturday 18 June 2016 at gotham hall, new york, usa. Driven by the desire to understand the mechanisms of cognition in the human brain and how to apply them to machines that learn, geoffrey hinton is considered the leading authority on machine learning. hinton’s development of the backpropagation algorithm was key to the resurgence of the machine learning field during the 1980s. he realised and demonstrated that, in addition to performing nonlinear regression and classification, back propagation allows neural networks to develop their own internal representations. the backpropagation algorithm has been used successfully in applications including speech and visual object recognition, fraud detection, plant monitoring and automated check verification. his early work on the boltzmann machine during the 1980s introduced many of the concepts that have remained at the forefront of neural network learning. boltzmann machines were initially considered too slow for widespread application. however, as computing power improved, hinton was able to develop a specific boltzmann machine that provides much faster training properties than the earlier general machines. the ability to pre-train each of the layers of neural networks having up to 20 layers of parameters ushered in the era of deep-learning neural networks. hinton demonstrated that deep networks, which partition the neural network into many layers, can be trained using mostly unsupervised learning, level by level, with each level learning to represent slightly more abstract concepts than the previous level, by composing those concepts represented by the previous levels. hinton’s work on deep learning has completely revolutionised the field of machine learning, especially impacting machine vision applications including image classification, medical diagnostics, law enforcement, computer gaming and enhanced vehicle safety. it is for his pioneering and sustained contributions to machine learning, including developments in deep neural networks, that professor hinton is awarded the ieee/rse James clerk maxwell award for 2016. THE IEEE /RSE JAMES CLERK MAXWELL AWARDEES 2007 –2015

Dr Irvin m Jacobs and Dr andrew J Viterbi, co-founders of Qualcomm incorporated, were jointly awarded the first award in 2007 . they received the award for fundamental contributions, innovation and leadership that enabled the growth of wireless communications. Dr Jacobs received his award at the ieee annual honors ceremony held in pennsylvania, usa in June 2007. Dr Viterbi was presented with his medal by hrh the Duke of edinburgh in July 2007 at the rse Fellows’ summer soirée. sir Timothy Berners-lee was presented with his award in september 2008 at the ieee honors ceremony in Quebec city for conceiving and further developing the World Wide Web. Professor alberto sangiovanni-Vincentelli fIeee was presented with his award by hrh the Duke of edinburgh at the rse in august 2009 for groundbreaking contributions that have had an exceptional impact on the development of electronics and the field of electrical engineering. amar G Bose received the 2010 award for his outstanding contributions to consumer electronics in sound reproduction, industrial leadership and engineering education. Professor marcian ‘Ted’ Hoff was presented with his award by hrh the Duke of edinburgh at the rse in august 2011 , for developments in programmable integrated circuitry for a wide variety of applications. this includes developing the microprocessor. Professor Gerhard m sessler was presented with his award by hrh the Duke of edinburgh at the rse in september 2012 , for pioneering contributions to electroacoustic transducers, the development of silicon microphone technology, and seminal work on electroactive materials. Professor richard s muller and Professor richard White were jointly awarded the 2013 award for their pioneering innovation and leadership in micro-electro-mechanical systems (mems) technology. the award was presented at the rse by hrh the Duke of edinburgh in august 2013. David neil Payne, Director, optoelectronics research centre, southampton, received the 2014 award for ground-breaking contributions to optical fibre technologies and their application to optical communications. Professor lynn conway was presented with her award by rse Vice-president for physical sciences, professor sir David Wallace, in november 2015 at the rse for contributions to and leadership in design methodology and pedagogy, enabling rapid advances and dissemination of Vlsi design tools and systems. THE IEEE /RSE JAMES CLERK MAXWELL AWARD

the ieee and the royal society of edinburgh created a joint award in 2006 to recognise groundbreaking contributions that have had an exceptional impact on the development of electronics and electrical engineering or related fields. the annual ieee/rse James clerk maxwell award consists of a gold medal, bronze replica, certificate and honorarium. the award is named in honour of the 19 th -century scottish mathematician and physicist, James clerk maxwell, who laid the foundations of electromagnetic wave theory, radio propagation, microwave techniques and radio communications.

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