Venki Ramakrishnan

Indian-born British-American structural biologist

Venki Ramakrishnan

Ramakrishnan in 2015

62nd President of the Royal Society
In office
1 December 2015 – 30 November 2020
Preceded by| Paul Nurse
Succeeded by| Adrian Smith
Personal details
Born|

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

(1952-04-01) 1 April 1952 (age 70)
Chidambaram, Madras State (now Tamil Nadu), India
Citizenship|

* United Kingdom
* United States

Spouse|

Vera Rosenberry

(m. 1975)​

[1]
Children| 1[1]
Residence| United Kingdom
Website| www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/group-leaders/n-to-s/venki-ramakrishnan
Education| Convent of Jesus and Mary Baroda
Alma mater|

* Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (BSc)
* University of California, San Diego[2]
* Ohio University (PhD)

Known for|

* Structure and function of the ribosome
* macromolecular crystallography

Awards|

* Knight Bachelor (2012)[3]
* Padma Vibhushan (2010)
* Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2009)[4]
* Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine (2007)[5]
* Member of the National Academy of Sciences (2004)
* Order of Merit (2022)[6]

Scientific career
Fields|

* Biochemistry
* Biophysics

Institutions|

* Laboratory of Molecular Biology
* University of Cambridge[1]
* Oak Ridge National Laboratory[1]
* Yale University[1]
* University of Utah[1]
* Brookhaven National Laboratory[7]

Thesis| The Green Function Theory of the Ferroelectric Phase Transition in Potassium Dihydrogen-Phosphate (1976)
Doctoral advisor| Tomoyasu Tanaka[1][8]
Influences|

* Peter B. Moore[1]
* Aaron Klug[1]
* The Feynman Lectures on Physics[1]

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (born 1952) is an Indian-born British and American structural biologist who shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Thomas A. Steitz and Ada Yonath, "for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome".[4][9][10][11]

Since 1999, he has worked as a group leader at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, UK and is a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.[12][13][14][15][16] He served as President of the Royal Society from 2015 to 2020.[17]

## Education and early life[edit]

Ramakrishnan was born in a Tamil family of Chidambaram in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu, India to C. V. Ramakrishnan and Rajalakshmi Ramakrishnan on 1 April 1952.[18][19] Both his parents were scientists, and his father was head of the Department of Biochemistry at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda.[1][20] At the time of his birth, Ramakrishnan's father was away from India doing postdoctoral research with David E. Green at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the US.[1]

His mother obtained a PhD in psychology from McGill University in 1959.[21] completing it in only 18 months, and was mentored by Donald O. Hebb.[1] Lalita Ramakrishnan, his younger sister, is professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge,[22] and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.[23]

Ramakrishnan moved to Vadodara (previously also known as Baroda) in Gujarat at the age of three, where he had his schooling at Convent of Jesus and Mary, except for spending 1960–61 in Adelaide, Australia. Following his pre-science at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, he did his undergraduate studies in the same university on a National Science Talent Scholarship, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in physics in 1971.[10] At the time, the physics course at Baroda was new, and based in part on the Berkeley Physics Course and The Feynman Lectures on Physics.[1]

Immediately after graduation he moved to the US, where he obtained his Doctor of Philosophy degree in physics from Ohio University in 1976 for research into the ferroelectric phase transition of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP)[24] supervised by Tomoyasu Tanaka.[8][25][26] Then he spent two years studying biology as a graduate student at the University of California, San Diego while making a transition from theoretical physics to biology.[27]

## Career and research[edit]

Ramakrishnan began work on ribosomes as a postdoctoral fellow with Peter Moore at Yale University.[10] After his post-doctoral fellowship, he initially could not find a faculty position even though he had applied to about 50 universities in the United States.[28][29]

He continued to work on ribosomes from 1983 to 1995 as a staff scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory.[7]

In 1995, he moved to the University of Utah as a Professor of Biochemistry, and in 1999, he moved to his current position at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, where he had also been a sabbatical visitor during 1991-92 on a Guggenheim Fellowship.[citation needed]

In 1999, Ramakrishnan's laboratory published a 5.5 angstrom resolution structure of the 30S subunit. The following year, his laboratory determined the complete molecular structure of the 30S subunit of the ribosome and its complexes with several antibiotics. This was followed by studies that provided structural insights into the mechanism that ensures the fidelity of protein biosynthesis. In 2007, his laboratory determined the atomic structure of the whole ribosome in complex with its tRNA and mRNA ligands. Since 2013, he has used cryo-EM to work primarily on eukaryotic and mitochondrial translation.[30][31] Ramakrishnan is also known for his past work on histone and chromatin structure.

As of 2019[update] his most cited papers (according to Google Scholar[32]) have been published in Nature,[33][34][35] Science,[36][37] and Cell.[38][39][40]

Ramakrishnan's term as president of the Royal Society was dominated by Brexit and, in his final year, the COVID-19 pandemic and its response.[41] In an interview in July 2018, he said that Britain's decision to leave the European Union was hurting Britain's reputation as a good place to work in science, commenting "It's very hard for the science community to see any advantages in Brexit. They are pretty blunt about that." He saw advantages to both the UK and the EU for Britain to continue to be engaged in Galileo and Euratom, which, unlike the European Medicines Agency, are not EU agencies.[42]

Ramakrishnan argued that a no deal Brexit would harm science. Ramakrishnan wrote, "A deal on science is in the best interests of Europe as a whole and should not be sacrificed as collateral damage over disagreements on other issues. If we are going to successfully tackle global problems like climate change, human disease and food security, we can't do so in isolation. There is no scenario where trashing our relationships with our closest scientific collaborators in the EU gets us closer to these goals."[43]

### Awards and honours[edit]

Ramakrishnan at the Nobel Prize Press conference in 2009.

Ramakrishnan was elected a Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) in 2002,[44] a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2003,[45] and a Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2004.

In 2007, Ramakrishnan was awarded the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine[5] and the Datta Lectureship and Medal of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS).

In 2008, he won the Heatley Medal of the British Biochemical Society. Since 2008, he is a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge and a foreign Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy. In 2010, he became a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.[46] He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2010, and has received honorary degrees from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, University of Utah and University of Cambridge. He is also an Honorary Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford.[47]

In 2020, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.[48] Also in 2020, he became a board member of The British Library.[49]

In 2009, Ramakrishnan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Thomas A. Steitz and Ada Yonath.[50] He received India's second highest civilian honor, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2010.[51]

Ramakrishnan was knighted in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to Molecular Biology,[3] but does not generally use the title "Sir".[52] That same year, he was awarded the Sir Hans Krebs Medal by the FEBS. In 2014, he was awarded the XLVI Jiménez-Díaz Prize by the Fundación Conchita Rábago (Spain).

In 2017, Ramakrishnan received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[53]

Ramakrishnan was included as one of 25 Greatest Global Living Indians by NDTV Channel, India on 14 December 2013. His certificate of election to the Royal Society reads:

> Ramakrishnan is internationally recognised for determination of the atomic structure of the 30S ribosomal subunit. Earlier he mapped the arrangement of proteins in the 30S subunit by neutron diffraction and solved X-ray structures of individual components and their RNA complexes. Fundamental insights came from his crystallographic studies of the complete 30S subunit. The atomic model included over 1500 bases of RNA and 20 associated proteins. The RNA interactions representing the P-site tRNA and the mRNA binding site were identified and the likely modes of action of many clinically important antibiotics determined. His most recent work goes to the heart of the decoding mechanism showing the 30S subunit complexed with poly-U mRNA and the stem-loop of the cognate phenylalanine tRNA. Anti-codon recognition leaves the "wobble" base free to accommodate certain non-Watson/Crick basepairs, thus providing an atomic description of both codon:anti-codon recognition and "wobble". He has also made substantial contributions to understanding how chromatin is organised, particularly the structure of linker histones and their role in higher order folding.[54]

He was made a member of the Order of Merit in 2022.[6]

While he prefers not to use titles and post-nominals, Ramakrishnan is entitled to use the title of "Sir" and OM and FRS in Commonwealth countries.[citation needed]

## Personal life[edit]

Ramakrishnan married Vera Rosenberry, an author and illustrator of children's books, in 1975.[1] His stepdaughter, Tanya Kapka, is a doctor in Oregon, and his son, Raman Ramakrishnan, is a cellist based in New York.[55]

## References[edit]

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o "Venkatraman Ramakrishnan – Biography: From Chidambaram to Cambridge: A Life in Science". nobelprize.org. Stockholm. Archived from the original on 18 April 2015. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
2. ^ Anon (2015). "Ramakrishnan, Sir Venkatraman". Who's Who. ukwhoswho.com (online Oxford University Press ed.). A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U45543. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
3. ^ a b "No. 60009". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2011. p. 1.
4. ^ a b "2009 Chemistry Nobel Laureates". Nobel Foundation. 2009. Retrieved 14 October 2009.
5. ^ a b Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine, jeantet.ch. Accessed 30 December 2022.
6. ^ a b His Majesty The King. "New Appointments to the Order of Merit". royal.uk. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
7. ^ a b Cerf, Corinne; Lippens, Guy; Muyldermans, Serge; Segers, Alain; Ramakrishnan, V.; Wodak, Shoshana J.; Hallenga, Klaas; Wyns, Lode (1993). "Homo- and heteronuclear two-dimensional NMR". Biochemistry. 32 (42): 11345–11351. doi:10.1021/bi00093a011. PMID 8218199.
8. ^ a b Ramakrishnan, Venkatraman; Tanaka, Tomoyasu (1977). "Green's-function theory of the ferroelectric phase transition in potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP)". Physical Review B. 16 (1): 422–426. Bibcode:1977PhRvB..16..422R. doi:10.1103/physrevb.16.422.
9. ^ Rodnina, Marina V.; Wintermeyer, Wolfgang (2010). "The ribosome goes Nobel". Trends in Biochemical Sciences. 35 (1): 1–5. doi:10.1016/j.tibs.2009.11.003. PMID 19962317.
10. ^ a b c "Venkatraman_Ramakrishnan". University of Cambridge. Archived from the original on 19 April 2015.
11. ^ Venkatraman Ramakrishnan Audio Interview Official Nobel Foundation website telephone interview
12. ^ Nair, Prashant (2011). "Profile of Venkatraman Ramakrishnan". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 108 (38): 15676–15678. Bibcode:2011PNAS..10815676N. doi:10.1073/pnas.1113044108. PMC 3179092. PMID 21914843.
13. ^ "Biologist Venki Ramakrishnan to lead Royal Society". BBC News. London. 18 March 2015. Archived from the original on 10 October 2015.
14. ^ James, Nathan Rhys (2017). Structural insights into noncanonical mechanisms of translation. cam.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. doi:10.17863/CAM.13713. OCLC 1064932062. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.725540.
15. ^ Venki Ramakrishnan Official website
16. ^ Ramakrishnan, Venki (2018). Gene machine. The race to decipher the secrets of the ribosome. London: Oneworld. ISBN 9781786074362. OCLC 1080631601.
17. ^ Peplow, M. (2015). "Structural biologist named president of UK Royal Society". Nature. doi:10.1038/nature.2015.17153. S2CID 112623895.
18. ^ "Common root: Tamil Nadu gets its third laureate". Times of India. TNN. 8 October 2009.
19. ^ "Venki Ramakrishnan, Ph.D." American Academy of Achievement. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
20. ^ Ramakrishnan, C. V.; Banerjee, B. N. (1951). "Mould Lipase: Effect of Addition of Vitamins and Sterol to the Cake Medium on the Growth and the Activity of the Lipolytic Mould". Nature. 168 (4282): 917–918. Bibcode:1951Natur.168..917R. doi:10.1038/168917a0. PMID 14899529. S2CID 4244697.
21. ^ Ramakrishnan, Rajalakshmi (1959). Comparative Effects of Successive and Simultaneous Presentation on Transfer in Verbal Learning (PhD thesis). McGill University. ProQuest 301865011.
22. ^ "Lalita Ramakrishnan Home page in Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge".
23. ^ "Lalita Ramakrishnan elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences". University of Cambridge. Retrieved 30 January 2016.
24. ^ Ramakrishnan, Venkatraman (1976). The Green function theory of the ferroelectric phase transition in KDP (PhD thesis). Ohio University. OCLC 3079828. ProQuest 302809453.
25. ^ "Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: a profile". Times of India. 7 October 2009. Retrieved 7 October 2009.
26. ^ "Factbox: Nobel chemistry prize – Who are the winners?". Reuters. 7 October 2009. Retrieved 7 October 2009.
27. ^ "Profile: Dr Venkatraman Ramakrishnan". Indian Express. 7 October 2009. Retrieved 7 October 2009.
28. ^ "Nobel laureate Venkat Ramakrishnan failed IIT, medical entrance tests". The Times of India. 5 January 2010.
29. ^ "Venki Ramakrishnan, Ph.D. Biography and Interview". www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
30. ^ Fernández, Israel S.; Bai, Xiao-Chen; Hussain, Tanweer; Kelley, Ann C.; Lorsch, Jon R.; Ramakrishnan, V.; Scheres, Sjors H. W. (15 November 2013). "Molecular architecture of a eukaryotic translational initiation complex". Science. 342 (6160): 1240585. doi:10.1126/science.1240585. ISSN 1095-9203. PMC 3836175. PMID 24200810.
31. ^ Amunts, Alexey; Brown, Alan; Bai, Xiao-Chen; Llácer, Jose L.; Hussain, Tanweer; Emsley, Paul; Long, Fei; Murshudov, Garib; Scheres, Sjors H. W. (28 March 2014). "Structure of the yeast mitochondrial large ribosomal subunit". Science. 343 (6178): 1485–1489. Bibcode:2014Sci...343.1485A. doi:10.1126/science.1249410. ISSN 1095-9203. PMC 4046073. PMID 24675956.
32. ^ Venki Ramakrishnan publications indexed by Google Scholar
33. ^ Ramakrishnan, V.; Wimberly, Brian T.; Brodersen, Ditlev E.; Clemons, William M.; Morgan-Warren, Robert J.; Carter, Andrew P.; Vonrhein, Clemens; Hartsch, Thomas (2000). "Structure of the 30S ribosomal subunit". Nature. 407 (6802): 327–339. Bibcode:2000Natur.407..327W. doi:10.1038/35030006. PMID 11014182. S2CID 4419944.
34. ^ Ramakrishnan, V.; Carter, Andrew P.; Clemons, William M.; Brodersen, Ditlev E.; Morgan-Warren, Robert J.; Wimberly, Brian T. (2000). "Functional insights from the structure of the 30S ribosomal subunit and its interactions with antibiotics". Nature. 407 (6802): 340–348. Bibcode:2000Natur.407..340C. doi:10.1038/35030019. PMID 11014183. S2CID 4408938.
35. ^ Ramakrishnan, V.; Finch, J. T.; Graziano, V.; Lee, P. L.; Sweet, R. M. (1993). "Crystal structure of globular domain of histone H5 and its implications for nucleosome binding". Nature. 362 (6417): 219–223. Bibcode:1993Natur.362..219R. doi:10.1038/362219a0. PMID 8384699. S2CID 4301198.
36. ^ Selmer, M. (2006). "Structure of the 70S Ribosome Complexed with mRNA and tRNA". Science. 313 (5795): 1935–1942. Bibcode:2006Sci...313.1935S. doi:10.1126/science.1131127. PMID 16959973. S2CID 9737925.
37. ^ Ogle, J. M. (2001). "Recognition of Cognate Transfer RNA by the 30S Ribosomal Subunit". Science. 292 (5518): 897–902. Bibcode:2001Sci...292..897O. doi:10.1126/science.1060612. PMID 11340196. S2CID 10743202.
38. ^ Ramakrishnan, V. (2002). "Ribosome Structure and the Mechanism of Translation". Cell. 108 (4): 557–572. doi:10.1016/s0092-8674(02)00619-0. PMID 11909526. S2CID 2078757.
39. ^ Brodersen, Ditlev E.; Clemons, William M.; Carter, Andrew P.; Morgan-Warren, Robert J.; Wimberly, Brian T.; Ramakrishnan, V. (2000). "The Structural Basis for the Action of the Antibiotics Tetracycline, Pactamycin, and Hygromycin B on the 30S Ribosomal Subunit". Cell. 103 (7): 1143–1154. doi:10.1016/s0092-8674(00)00216-6. PMID 11163189. S2CID 7763859.
40. ^ Ogle, James M.; Murphy, Frank V.; Tarry, Michael J.; Ramakrishnan, V. (2002). "Selection of tRNA by the Ribosome Requires a Transition from an Open to a Closed Form". Cell. 111 (5): 721–732. doi:10.1016/s0092-8674(02)01086-3. PMID 12464183. S2CID 10784644.
41. ^ Clive Cookson (20 November 2020). "'Voice of British science fights for future of UK research'". The Financial Times.
42. ^ Ian Tucke (15 July 2018). "Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: 'Britain's reputation has been hurt'". The Guardian.
43. ^ A no-deal Brexit would be a disaster for the UK science community, The Independent. Accessed 30 December 2022.
44. ^ "The EMBO Pocket Directory" (PDF). European Molecular Biology Organization. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 March 2015.
45. ^ "Sir Venki Ramakrishnan FRS". London: Royal Society. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015.
46. ^ "Venkatraman Ramakrishnan". German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
47. ^ "Emeritus and Honorary Fellows". Somerville College, Oxford. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
48. ^ "The American Philosophical Society Welcomes New Members for 2020".
49. ^ "Venki Ramakrishnan appointed to the British Library Board". The British Library. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
50. ^ "All Nobel Laureates in Chemistry". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 7 October 2009.
51. ^ "This Year's Padma Awards announced" (Press release). Ministry of Home Affairs. 25 January 2010. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
52. ^ "Laureate – Venkatraman Ramakrishnan". Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
53. ^ "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement". www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
54. ^ "Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: Certificate of Election EC/2003/31". London: The Royal Society. 2003. Archived from the original on 5 May 2017. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
55. ^ Amit Roy (17 October 2009). "'Venki' makes light of India link – Winner says not to treat science like cricket; league of misses grows". The Telegraph (Kolkata). Retrieved 17 October 2009.

## External links[edit]

* Venki Ramakrishnan on Nobelprize.org  including the Nobel Lecture on 8 December 2009 Unraveling the Structure of the Ribosome
* Media related to Venkatraman Ramakrishnan at Wikimedia Commons
* Quotations related to Venkatraman Ramakrishnan at Wikiquote

Professional and academic associations

Preceded by

Paul Nurse

| 62nd President of the Royal Society
2015–2020  | Succeeded by

Adrian Smith

* v
* t
* e

Laureates of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry

1901–1925|

* 1901: Jacobus van 't Hoff
* 1902: Emil Fischer
* 1903: Svante Arrhenius
* 1904: William Ramsay
* 1905: Adolf von Baeyer
* 1906: Henri Moissan
* 1907: Eduard Buchner
* 1908: Ernest Rutherford
* 1909: Wilhelm Ostwald
* 1910: Otto Wallach
* 1911: Marie Curie
* 1912: Victor Grignard / Paul Sabatier
* 1913: Alfred Werner
* 1914: Theodore Richards
* 1915: Richard Willstätter
* 1916
* 1917
* 1918: Fritz Haber
* 1919
* 1920: Walther Nernst
* 1921: Frederick Soddy
* 1922: Francis Aston
* 1923: Fritz Pregl
* 1924
* 1925: Richard Zsigmondy

1926–1950|

* 1926: Theodor Svedberg
* 1927: Heinrich Wieland
* 1928: Adolf Windaus
* 1929: Arthur Harden / Hans von Euler-Chelpin
* 1930: Hans Fischer
* 1931: Carl Bosch / Friedrich Bergius
* 1932: Irving Langmuir
* 1933
* 1934: Harold Urey
* 1935: Frédéric Joliot-Curie / Irène Joliot-Curie
* 1936: Peter Debye
* 1937: Norman Haworth / Paul Karrer
* 1938: Richard Kuhn
* 1939: Adolf Butenandt / Leopold Ružička
* 1940
* 1941
* 1942
* 1943: George de Hevesy
* 1944: Otto Hahn
* 1945: Artturi Virtanen
* 1946: James B. Sumner / John Northrop / Wendell Meredith Stanley
* 1947: Robert Robinson
* 1948: Arne Tiselius
* 1949: William Giauque
* 1950: Otto Diels / Kurt Alder

1951–1975|

* 1951: Edwin McMillan / Glenn T. Seaborg
* 1952: Archer Martin / Richard Synge
* 1953: Hermann Staudinger
* 1954: Linus Pauling
* 1955: Vincent du Vigneaud
* 1956: Cyril Hinshelwood / Nikolay Semyonov
* 1957: Alexander Todd
* 1958: Frederick Sanger
* 1959: Jaroslav Heyrovský
* 1960: Willard Libby
* 1961: Melvin Calvin
* 1962: Max Perutz / John Kendrew
* 1963: Karl Ziegler / Giulio Natta
* 1964: Dorothy Hodgkin
* 1965: Robert Woodward
* 1966: Robert S. Mulliken
* 1967: Manfred Eigen / Ronald Norrish / George Porter
* 1968: Lars Onsager
* 1969: Derek Barton / Odd Hassel
* 1970: Luis Federico Leloir
* 1971: Gerhard Herzberg
* 1972: Christian B. Anfinsen / Stanford Moore / William Stein
* 1973: Ernst Otto Fischer / Geoffrey Wilkinson
* 1974: Paul Flory
* 1975: John Cornforth / Vladimir Prelog

1976–2000|

* 1976: William Lipscomb
* 1977: Ilya Prigogine
* 1978: Peter D. Mitchell
* 1979: Herbert C. Brown / Georg Wittig
* 1980: Paul Berg / Walter Gilbert / Frederick Sanger
* 1981: Kenichi Fukui / Roald Hoffmann
* 1982: Aaron Klug
* 1983: Henry Taube
* 1984: Robert Merrifield
* 1985: Herbert A. Hauptman / Jerome Karle
* 1986: Dudley R. Herschbach / Yuan T. Lee / John Polanyi
* 1987: Donald J. Cram / Jean-Marie Lehn / Charles J. Pedersen
* 1988: Johann Deisenhofer / Robert Huber / Hartmut Michel
* 1989: Sidney Altman / Thomas Cech
* 1990: Elias Corey
* 1991: Richard R. Ernst
* 1992: Rudolph A. Marcus
* 1993: Kary Mullis / Michael Smith
* 1994: George Olah
* 1995: Paul J. Crutzen / Mario Molina / F. Sherwood Rowland
* 1996: Robert Curl / Harold Kroto / Richard Smalley
* 1997: Paul D. Boyer / John E. Walker / Jens Christian Skou
* 1998: Walter Kohn / John Pople
* 1999: Ahmed Zewail
* 2000: Alan J. Heeger / Alan MacDiarmid / Hideki Shirakawa

2001–present|

* 2001: William Knowles / Ryoji Noyori / K. Barry Sharpless
* 2002: John B. Fenn / Koichi Tanaka / Kurt Wüthrich
* 2003: Peter Agre / Roderick MacKinnon
* 2004: Aaron Ciechanover / Avram Hershko / Irwin Rose
* 2005: Robert H. Grubbs / Richard R. Schrock / Yves Chauvin
* 2006: Roger D. Kornberg
* 2007: Gerhard Ertl
* 2008: Osamu Shimomura / Martin Chalfie / Roger Y. Tsien
* 2009: Venkatraman Ramakrishnan / Thomas A. Steitz / Ada E. Yonath
* 2010: Richard F. Heck / Akira Suzuki / Ei-ichi Negishi
* 2011: Dan Shechtman
* 2012: Robert Lefkowitz / Brian Kobilka
* 2013: Martin Karplus / Michael Levitt / Arieh Warshel
* 2014: Eric Betzig / Stefan Hell / William E. Moerner
* 2015: Tomas Lindahl / Paul L. Modrich / Aziz Sancar
* 2016: Jean-Pierre Sauvage / Fraser Stoddart / Ben Feringa
* 2017: Jacques Dubochet / Joachim Frank / Richard Henderson
* 2018: Frances Arnold / Gregory Winter / George Smith
* 2019: John B. Goodenough / M. Stanley Whittingham / Akira Yoshino
* 2020: Emmanuelle Charpentier / Jennifer Doudna
* 2021: David MacMillan / Benjamin List
* 2022: Carolyn R. Bertozzi / Morten P. Meldal / Karl Barry Sharpless

* v
* t
* e

2009 Nobel Prize laureates

Chemistry|

* Venki Ramakrishnan (United States/United Kingdom)
* Thomas A. Steitz (United States)
* Ada Yonath (Israel)

Literature (2009)|

* Herta Müller (Germany/Romania)

Peace (2009)|

* Barack Obama (United States)

Physics|

* Charles K. Kao (Hong Kong/United Kingdom/United States)
* Willard Boyle (Canada/United States)
* George E. Smith (United States)

Physiology or Medicine|

* Elizabeth Blackburn (United States/Australia)
* Carol W. Greider (United States)
* Jack W. Szostak (United Kingdom/United States)

Economic Sciences|

* Elinor Ostrom (United States)
* Oliver E. Williamson (United States)

Nobel Prize recipients
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014

* v
* t
* e

Fellows of the Royal Society elected in 2003

Fellows|

* John D. Barrow
* Jocelyn Bell Burnell
* Mariann Bienz
* William Bonfield
* John Milton Brown
* Mark Wayne Chase
* Michael Coey
* Kay Davies
* Anthony R. Dickinson
* Eleanor Dodson
* Peter Dornan
* Ann Dowling
* Jeffery Errington
* Roger Fletcher
* Roderick Flower
* Melvyn Greaves
* Peter Green
* Keith Gull
* Peter Holland
* James Hough
* Malcolm Irving
* Jonathan D. G. Jones
* Michael L. Klein
* Alan MacDiarmid
* Stephen Mann
* Richard John Nelmes
* Stephen O'Rahilly
* Bridget Ogilvie
* Tim Palmer
* John Papaloizou
* Venki Ramakrishnan
* Elizabeth Robertson
* John Gair Robson
* John Donald Scott
* Richard H. Sibson
* Leon Simon
* Geoffrey L. Smith
* Adrian Sutton
* Karen Vousden
* Andrew Watson
* Fiona Watt
* Peter N. T. Wells

Foreign|

* Denis Baylor
* Fotis Kafatos
* Klaus von Klitzing
* Donald Knuth
* José Sarukhán
* Valentine Telegdi

* v
* t
* e

Recipients of Padma Vibhushan

Arts|

* Ebrahim Alkazi
* Kishori Amonkar
* Prabha Atre
* Amitabh Bachchan
* Teejan Bai
* M. Balamuralikrishna
* T. Balasaraswati
* Asha Bhosle
* Nandalal Bose
* Hariprasad Chaurasia
* Girija Devi
* Kumar Gandharva
* Adoor Gopalakrishnan
* Satish Gujral
* Gangubai Hangal
* Bhupen Hazarika
* M. F. Husain
* Ilaiyaraaja
* Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer
* Bhimsen Joshi
* Ali Akbar Khan
* Amjad Ali Khan
* Allauddin Khan
* Bismillah Khan
* Ghulam Mustafa Khan
* Yamini Krishnamurthy
* Dilip Kumar
* R. K. Laxman
* Birju Maharaj
* Kishan Maharaj
* Lata Mangeshkar
* Sonal Mansingh
* Mallikarjun Mansur
* Zubin Mehta
* Mario Miranda
* Chhannulal Mishra
* Kelucharan Mohapatra
* Raghunath Mohapatra
* Jasraj Motiram
* Benode Behari Mukherjee
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