Robert May

Robert McCredie May, Lord May of Oxford, OM AC Kt FRS, holds a Professorship at the University of Oxford and is a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. 

He was President of The Royal Society (2000-2005), and before that Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government and Head of the UK Office of Science and Technology (1995-2000). 

His career includes a Personal Chair in Physics at Sydney University aged 33, Class of 1877 Professor of Zoology at Princeton, and in 1988 a move to Britain as Royal Society Research Professor. 

Particular interests include how dynamical systems are structured and respond to change, particularly with respect to infectious diseases and biodiversity. 

Honours include: the Royal Swedish Academy’s Crafoord Prize, the Swiss-Italian Balzan Prize, the Japanese Blue Planet Prize, and the Royal Society’s Copley Medal, its oldest (1731) and most prestigious award.