The Royal Society

Last Tuesday we took a day trip into London. It was the day after Brian stabbed himself, but he was still up for it, and mainly because he had an important lunch meeting a The Royal Society. So a little background information for everyone to remind you about Brian's grant and how we are here in the first place. Brian received a two-year research fellowship from The Royal Society www.royalsoc.ac.uk, which is the UK's national academy of science, much like the NSF (National Science Foundation) in the US. This is an international fellowship specifically for North Americans (so US or Canada) who have obtained their PhD's and want to further their research and experience. The Royal Society also has other International fellowships like this one for scientists in China or India. Interesting enough, they do not have these type of fellowships for scientists in the EU, since UK is also part of the EU. This year, there are about a total of 77 International Research Fellows with the Royal Society and they vary in age, experience and expertise. The research fellows also are working at various UK universities such as Oxford, Cambridge and the University of London. The research fellowships are mainly for only one year, but Brian managed to land one of the few two-year research fellowships.

So the lunch meeting involved gathering select International Research Fellows for a lunch and meeting. Brian said there were about 10 who attended (see the group photo). We arrived late into London due to train issues (which I've learned always to assume you'll be late in your on the train to London) but Brian made it to the Royal Society in time for the meeting. The meeting was mainly for the Royal Society to find out from the fellows how the program was going and what could they do to help make things better for the fellows. Supposedly the North American grants have been around for only 3 years, so it's fairly new for all involved. Brian enjoyed giving feedback and asking questions and learning more about the organization that so generously has funded a huge grant for him. The Royal Society is also quite prestigious in that famous scientists such as Sir Isaac Newton was a fellow and current physicist Stephen Hawking among others. Only a select few are chosen each year to become actual fellows. Brian enjoyed a tour of the Royal Society building and saw some of Sir Isaac Newton's authentic lab books in the library archives.

And also to clarify, Brian and other other International Research Fellows are not actual real Royal Society Fellows, like the famous physicists. . . but doesn't mean that someday he won't be! :)

And while I'm explaining all this, I'll explain what Brian's role then is at Oxford. Unfortunately he's not a true employee of the University of Oxford. He's more like a visiting academic or visiting researcher, being funded by the Royal Society. There are many other postdocs or researchers in similar situations as Brian, being funded by other entities. The good news is, he's basically treated as a regular postdoc in the department. The bad news is, postdocs are kind of in this grey area anyway, since they are not students anymore, nor are they professors or lecturers or anything. So there are other benefits they miss out on, like not having any affiliation to a particular college at Oxford. Overall though, it's not a big deal to his experience and learning here. It's pretty amazing!