Three of the UK’s most prestigious scientific bodies have honoured University of Nottingham researchers, an alumnus and an honorary professor.

The Academy of Medical Sciences elected Professor Ian Hall to its Fellowship.

Professor Hall, Director of the NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre, and his collaborators Professors Melanie Davies CBE and Martin Tobin from the University of Leicester are among 48 of the UK’s world-leading researchers to receive the distinction.

Professors Hall and Tobin have collaborated successfully for many years resulting in breakthroughs in genetics of lung health and disease – including new industry partnerships in 2018. Professors Hall and Davies also work closely together as leads of their respective NIHR Biomedical Research Centres.

Meanwhile, A University of Nottingham alumnus and an honorary professor have been elected to the Royal Society.

Professors Sebsebe Demissew and Robin Grimes are among 60 eminent academics recognised, as fellows or foreign members, for their contribution to science.

They join names such as Elon Musk and Jim Al-Khalili, as well as long-standing fellows such as the University’s Professor Sir Martyn Poliakoff, in demonstrating a substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematics, engineering science and medical science.

Professor Demissew is the first African Foreign member of the Royal Society in its 357-year history. He is keeper of the National Herbarium in Ethiopia, received an honorary doctorate from Nottingham in 2010 and is an Honorary Professor at the University’s School of Biosciences.

Professor Grimes is a nuclear energy specialist and Professor of Materials Physics at Imperial College and Chief Scientific Advisor to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He graduated from Nottingham in 1982.

And the Royal Society of Chemistry made Dr Deborah Kays its Chemistry of Transition Metals winner for 2018.

Dr Kays’ work focuses on making metal compounds that are not stable under normal conditions. Study of their unusual structures and reactivity shows that they can effect unique chemical transformations. Her work has implications in medicine, agrochemicals, lubricants, and in the development of new molecules and materials.

She said: “I am very honoured and excited to be receiving the RSC Chemistry of the Transition Metals Award 2018, especially as I am aware of the outstanding chemists who have been past recipients.”

Among 50 previous winners of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Awards are Nobel laureates including 2016 winners Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Fraser Stoddart and Ben Feringa.

Discover more:

• Professor Ian Hall’s Fellowship
• Our Royal Society accolades
• Dr Deborah Kays and her award