Certificates of election and candidature for Fellowship of the Royal Society Certificates of election to the Fellowship of the Royal Society. Covering candidates elected as Fellows (scientists from the UK and Commonwealth) and Foreign Members (Scientists from outside the Commonwealth) in recognition of their scientific excellence. Candidates must have made 'a substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematics, engineering science and medical science'. Also includes certificates of Honorary Fellows. Honorary Fellows are typically not scientists but are elected in recognition of their contribution to the cause of science, for example Honorary Fellows have included; science writers, broadcasters and communicators, politicians and historians of science. Royal patrons (i.e the monarch) do no have certificates of election unless they have previously been elected as a Royal Fellow. The Council of the Royal Society can recommend members of the UK Royal Family for election to the Fellowship as Royal Fellows. Not all certificates represent elected Fellows; a small percentage are for unsuccessful candidates. From 1941 these are placed in the separate 'Lapsed Certificates' series. Certificates of Election were created as a result of a meeting of Council on 7 December 1730 when a draft of a new statute was proposed with the intention of limiting membership of the Society. The Statute proposed that each candidate for election should be recommended by three existing Fellows, 'who shall deliver to one of the Secretaries a paper signed by themselves, signifying the name, addition, profession, occupation, and chief qualifications of the Candidate for election, as also notifying the usual place of habitation'. Such certificates were dated and hung ('suspended') in the meeting room for ten gatherings of Fellows before being balloted, and bear the signatures of those Fellows supporting the candidate, with the date of election. Certificates were not made compulsory until 1847 when new statutes were enacted. Therefore there may not be a certificate for every Fellow elected in the period 1731 to 1849. Also, if the candidate is a peer, then he might not have an election certificate, but be elected directly after a motion put to the Society at a meeting. Certificates begin as certifcates of candidature. Candidates for Fellowship must be proposed by existing Fellows, the number of proposers required has varied over the years. There is now a selection process overseen by the Council of the Royal Society, Council appoints 10 subject area committees, known as Sectional Committees, to recommend the strongest candidates for election to Fellowship. These selections are approved at a meeting of the Fellowship, each candidate must secure the support of two thirds of the Fellowship. Certificates of successful candidates are endorsed with a date of election and signature of an Officer of the Society, at which point they are classified as election certificates and archived. There have been changes in the format of the certificates over time but each certificate typically contains the following information: Personal details of the candidate including: name, date and place of birth, nationality, address and contact information, honours and qulaifications, current profession. Date submitted to the Society, years/meetings for which the certificate is 'suspended' (i.e. remains eligible), and date elected. Which sectional committee will consider the nomination, and whether the candidate is from the mainstream physical and biological sciences, applied sciences, human sciences or is a general/honorary Fellow candidate. A citation, which states the reasons the candidate has been nominated, this citation has been transcribed in the catalogue record for each individual certificate. Where the citation refers to a list of publications (usually 20th century certificates) this has been transferred to the Personal Information File (PIF) for that Fellow. From 2008 Fellows could be proposed online, and citations updated online. Occasionally this led to confusion; election was on the original citation, although the proposer unknowingly updated the citation online; where this occurs, both versions of the citation are retained. The names of the proposers of each Fellow, these have been transcribed in each certificate catalogue record. However, due to the 50 year closure rule the information on proposers from certificates less than 50 years old has not been transcribed in the catalogue. Digital images of each certificate have been attached to the majority of the catalogue records. Again the 50 year rule applies so that images of certificates less than 50 years old have not been attached. The reverse of a certificate has been digitized where it contains further information on a candidate - 20th century certificates have directions for completion on their reverse, these have not been digitized. 1731 -