Please note: The MRC Millennium Medal is currently paused for review.
The MRC Millennium Medal is presented to an exceptional researcher who has made a major contribution towards MRC’s mission to improve human health through world-class medical research.
Nominees should demonstrate outstanding scientific excellence, impact and wider contributions to improving the research environment and culture.
The winner will:
- receive a prestigious medal, specially created by The Royal Mint
- be listed amongst the most highly influential and impactful researchers in the UK
- deliver a lecture and have their research and achievements showcased at an awards ceremony
Review of MRC Millennium Medal
The MRC Millennium Medal is currently paused while the prize is under review.
We will provide updates on this page as further information becomes available.
Previous winners
Since its launch more than 20 years ago, the MRC Millennium Medal has been presented to truly outstanding individuals, spanning the full breath of medical research and innovation. Several of these researchers have also gone on to receive a Nobel Prize or be listed on the Queen’s Honours list for scientific excellence in their field.
Timeline of the past MRC Millennium Medal winners between 2000 and 2025:
- 2025: Professor George Davey Smith, for pioneering approaches to causal inference in population health sciences
- 2023: Professor Sir Simon Baron-Cohen, transformative research into the causes of autism and reshaped public perception of neurodiversity
- 2022: Professor Lisa Hall CBE, outstanding impacts in biotechnology and biosensor design
- 2022: Professor Sarah Tabrizi, pioneering work in Huntington’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases
- 2021: Professor Sharon Peacock CBE, pioneering work in pathogen sequencing, visionary leadership of COVID-19 Genomics UK consortium (COG-UK) and outstanding contributions to advance equality, diversity and inclusion in research
- 2020: Professor Sir Rory Collins, transformative contributions to cardiovascular disease and visionary leadership of UK Biobank
- 2017: Professor Janet Darbyshire, transformative work on clinical trials, resulting in major advances in disease treatment and prevention including tuberculosis, HIV and AIDS, and cancer
- 2015: Professor Sir Brian Greenwood, reinventing field research in tropical medicine
- 2013: Professor Sir Gregory Winter, development of humanised monoclonal antibodies
- 2013: Professor Sir Philip Cohen, outstanding collaborative work with the pharmaceutical industry
- 2006: Professor Sir Edwin Southern, invention of the southern blotting technique and DNA microarray technology
- 2004: Sir Peter Mansfield, development of MRI imaging
- 2002: Professor Tom Meade, contribution to UK health, particularly in cardiovascular disease
- 2000: Dr César Milstein, pioneering work on monoclonal antibodies
Contact
For more information email the MRC Millennium Medal team.
Email: medal@mrc.ukri.org
Last updated: 29 April 2026