“It really does seem such an honour, because engineers don’t often get much recognition,” says Hugh Griffiths on being elected to the fellowship of the Royal Society. The 2021 elite cohort will, in time, Covid restrictions permitting, attend a ceremony in the Society’s storied halls in Carlton House Terrace, where he will be in elevated company. The Royal Society has counted among its fellows such names as Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday, Ernest Rutherford and Albert Einstein.
Fellowship of the Royal Society is awarded to those who have made a “substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematics, engineering science, and medical science”. It allows laureates to use the post-nominal letters ‘FRS’, which, for the onlooking engineering community, is confirmation that you have ‘made it’. This is further confirmed by how difficult it is to get elected and by the fact that the annual intake is limited to 52...