/ Medals and awards

Milner Award and Lecture

This award is made for outstanding achievement in computer science by a European researcher.

  • Opening date

  • Closing date

  • Winners announcement

The award

The Royal Society Milner Award and Lecture, supported by Microsoft Research in order to help sustain a thriving research community in Europe, is the premier European award for outstanding achievement in computer science. It is awarded to recognise an outstanding European computer scientist, someone who has made a substantial contribution and who is likely to go on to further top-level achievement. The recipient is a European researcher or researcher who has been resident in Europe for 12 months or more, and is chosen by the Council of the Royal Society on the recommendation of the Milner Award Committee. The Committee is made up of Fellows of the Royal Society, Members of the Académie des sciences (France) and Members of Leopoldina (Germany). The award is named in honour of Professor Robin Milner FRS (1934-2010), a pioneer in computer science. The medal is of bronze, is awarded annually and is accompanied by a gift of £5,000. 

Eligibility

The Royal Society Milner award is open to European citizens or those who have been residents for at least 12 months. There are no restrictions on career stage and nominations will remain valid and shall be considered by the award selection committee throughout three nomination cycles. Nominees cannot be employed by Microsoft and its affiliates (full- or part-time), including anybody who had had a formal contract or remunerative relationship with the company in the 12 months prior to nomination. 

Nominations are closed

Nominations will reopen in November 2024.

2025 winner

  • Professor Iryna Gurevych

    Professor Iryna Gurevych

    The Milner Award and Lecture 2025 is awarded to Professor Iryna Gurevych for her major contributions to natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence that combine deep understanding of human language and cognitive faculty with the latest paradigms in machine learning. Picture Credit: TU Darmstadt; Rüdiger Dunker

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    Past winners

    • Artur Ekert
      Awarded in 2024

      Professor Artur Ekert FRS

      For his pioneering contributions to quantum communication and computation, which transformed the field of quantum information science from a niche academic activity into a vibrant interdisciplinary field of industrial relevance.
    • Stephane Mallat
      Awarded in 2023

      Professor Stéphane Mallat

      For his key advances in the fundamental principles of wavelets, including theory for audio, image and video processing, his entrepreneurship, and for contributing significantly to advancing the understanding of deep neural networks.
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      Awarded in 2022

      Professor Yvonne Rogers

      For contributions to Human-Computer Interaction and the design of human-centred technology.
    • Zoubin Ghahramani
      Awarded in 2021

      Zoubin Ghahramani

      For his fundamental contributions to probabilistic machine learning
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      Awarded in 2020

      Cordelia Schmid

      For her work in computer vision and her fundamental contributions to the representation of images and videos for visual recognition.
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      Awarded in 2019

      Eugene Wimberly Myers Jr.

      For his development of computational techniques that have brought genome sequencing into everyday use, underpinned key biological sequencing tools, and made large scale analysis of biological images practical.
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      Awarded in 2018

      Marta Kwiatkowska

      In recognition of her contribution to the theoretical and practical development of stochastic and quantitative model checking.
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      Awarded in 2017

      Andrew Zisserman

      For his work on computational theory and commercial systems for geometrical images and as a pioneer in machine learning for vision.
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      Awarded in 2016

      Xavier Leroy

      In recognition of his exceptional achievements in computer programming which includes the design and implementation of the OCaml programming language.
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      Awarded in 2015

      Thomas Henzinger

      For fundamental advances in the theory and practice of formal verification and synthesis of reactive, real-time, and hybrid computer systems.
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      Awarded in 2014

      Bernhard Schölkopf

      For being a pioneer in machine learning whose work defined the field of “kernel machines” which are widely used in all areas of science and industry.
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      Awarded in 2014

      Serge Abiteboul

      For his world leading database research with significant scientific and industrial impact.