Professor Sarah Gilbert has been awarded the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce’ (RSA) Albert Medal for her work on the Oxford vaccine.
The lead researcher on the Oxford vaccine team, Professor Sarah Gilbert is Professor of Vaccinology in the Nuffield Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford. She is the Oxford Project Leader for ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, a vaccine against the novel coronavirus, SARSCoV-2, with approval for use in many countries around the world.
The RSA Albert Medal is awarded annually to recognise the creativity and innovation of individuals and organisations working to resolve the challenges of our time. Professor Gilbert receives the 2021 honour for her services to collaborative innovation for the global common good. She is the 156th recipient of the medal, which was instituted in 1864 as a memorial to Prince Albert, former President of the Society.
Previous recipients range from scientists to artists to social campaigners: they include Alexander Graham Bell in 1902 for the invention of the telephone; Marie Curie in 1910 for the discovery of radium; Stephen Hawking in 1999 for improving public awareness of physics; and Tim Berners-Lee in 2002 for the creation of the World Wide Web.