Named for microphone inventor David Edward Hughes, the Hughes medal is one of several medals awarded by The Royal Society, England's reigning academy of science.
The Hughes medal in particular is awarded to
an original discovery in the physical sciences, particularly electricity and magnetism or their applications.
(Royal Society website)
It is made of silver gilt, and has been handed out since 1902, beginning with the eminent atomic physicist J.J. Thomson, discoverer of the electron. Several other notable people have also won the medal, including Hans Geiger, Alexander Graham Bell, Stephen Hawking, and Enrico Fermi. Other winners have included:
Hughes Medal Winners
2002
Alexander Dalgarno
2001
John Pethica
2000
Chintamani Rao
1999
Alexander Boksenberg
1998
Raymond Hide
1997
Andrew Lang
1996
Amyand Buckingham
1995
David Shoenberg
1994
Robert Chambers
1993
George Isaak
1992
Michael Seaton
1991
Philip Moon
1990
Thomas Cowling
1989
John Bell
1988
A. Howie and M.J. Whelan
1987
Michael Pepper
1986
M.M. Woolfson
1985
Tony Skyrme
1984
Roy Kerr
1983
John Ward
1982
Drummond Matthews and Frederick Vine
1981
Peter Higgs, Thomas Walter and Bannerman Kibble
1980
Francis Farley
1979
Robert Williams
1978
William Cochran
1977
Anthony Hewish
1976
Stephen Hawking
1975
Richard Dalitz
1974
Peter Fowler
1973
Peter Hirsch
1972
Brian Josephson
1971
Robert Brown
1970
David Bates
1969
Nicholas Kurti
1968
Freeman Dyson
1967
Kurt Mendelssohn
1966
Nicholas Kemmer
1965
Denys Wilkinson
1964
Abdus Salam
1963
Frederic Williams
1962
Brebis Bleaney
1961
Alan Cottrell
1960
Joseph Pawsey
1959
Alfred Pippard
1958
Edward da Costa Andrade
1957
Joseph Proudman
1956
Frederick Lindemann
1955
Harrie Massey
1954
Martin Ryle
1953
Edward Bullard
1952
Philip Dee
1951
Hendrick Kramers
1950
Max Born
1949
Cecil Powell
1948
Robert Watson-Watt
1947
Jean Joliot
1946
John Randall
1945
Basil Schonland
1944
George Finch
1943
Marcus Oliphant
1942
Enrico Fermi
1941
Nevill Mott
1940
Arthur Compton
1939
George Thomson
1938
John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton
1937
Ernest Lawrence
1936
Walder Schottky
1935
Clinton Davisson
1934
Karl Siegbahn
1933
Edward Appleton
1932
James Chadwick
1931
William Bragg
1930
Venkata Raman
1929
Hans Geiger
1928
Mauruice de Broglie
1927
William Coolidge
1926
Henry Jackson
1925
Frank Smith
1924
Not awarded
1923
Robert Millikan
1922
Francis Aston
1921
Niels Bohr
1920
Owen Richardson
1919
Charles Chree
1918
Irving Langmuir
1917
Charles Barkla
1916
Elihu Thomson
1915
Paul Langevin
1914
John Townsend
1913
Alexander Graham Bell
1912
William Duddell
1911
Charles Wilson
1910
John Fleming
1909
Richard Glazebrook
1908
Eugen Goldstein
1907
Ernest Griffiths
1906
Hertha Ayrton
1905
Augusto Righi
1904
Joseph Swan
1903
William Hittorf
1902
Joseph John Thomson