Professor Anne Ridley elected to the fellowship of the Royal Society

 Anne Ridley, Professor of Cell Biology from the Randall Division of Cell & Molecular Biophysics in the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine has been elected to the fellowship of the Royal Society, the UK's national academy of science. Professor Ridley is one of 50 distinguished scientists elected each year in recognition of their exceptional contributions to science, engineering and medicine.

Professor Ridley received her BA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, and her PhD from the University of London. She was awarded an EMBO postdoctoral fellowship to carry out research for a year at MIT, Cambridge, USA. She was then a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Cancer Research in London. In 1993, she was appointed as a group leader (assistant professor level) at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, University College London.  She was promoted to associate professor level in 1998 and to Professor of Cell Biology in 2003. She moved to King’s College London as Professor of Cell Biology in 2007. Anne Ridley was awarded the Hooke Medal by the British Society of Cell Biology in 2000. She was elected as an EMBO member in 2002, and was awarded the Lilian-Bettencourt Prize for the Life Sciences in 2004. She became a fellow of the Royal Society of Biology in 2009, and of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2012. She became an honorary fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society in 2014.

The Fellowship of the Royal Society is made up of the most eminent scientists, engineers and technologists from or living and working in the UK and the Commonwealth. Past Fellows and Foreign Members have included Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. You can view the full list of Fellows on the Royal Society website.

Executive Dean, Professor Richard Trembath said: "My heartfelt congratulations to Anne on this outstanding and wonderful achievement. Election to fellowship of the Royal Society is a result of many years’ work. It is incredibly well deserved."

Venki Ramakrishnan, President of the Royal Society, says: “Science is a great triumph of human achievement and has contributed hugely to the prosperity and health of our world. In the coming decades it will play an increasingly crucial role in tackling the great challenges of our time including food, energy, health and the environment. The new Fellows of the Royal Society have already contributed much to science and it gives me great pleasure to welcome them into our ranks.”