The following is a list of notable people educated at St John's College, Cambridge. When available, years of attendance are provided as indicated in the College Register or in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Over 1000 former members of St John's College appear in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.[1]
Three Royal Medals, known also as the Queen's Medals, are awarded annually by the Sovereign upon the recommendation of the Council of the Royal Society, "two for the most important contributions to the advancement of Natural Knowledge (one in the physical and one in the biological sciences) and the other for distinguished contributions in the applied sciences". The first Royal Medal was awarded in 1826 and previous recipients include thirty-eight Johnians.
| Name | Year | Rationale[4] [5] [6] [7] [8] | |
|---|---|---|---|
| John Herschel | 1836 | For his paper on nebulae and clusters of stars, published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1833 | |
| James Sylvester | 1861 | For his various memoirs and researches in mathematical science | |
| John Newport Langley | 1892 | For his work on secreting glands, and on the nervous system | |
| Charles Pritchard | 1892 | For his work on photometry and stellar parallax | |
| Arthur Schuster | 1893 | For his spectroscopic inquiries, and his researches on disruptive discharge through gases and on terrestrial magnetism | |
| Percy MacMahon | 1900 | For the number and range of his contributions to mathematical science | |
| William Burnside | 1904 | For his researches in mathematics, particularly in the theory of groups | |
| Augustus Love | 1909 | On the ground of his researches in the theory of elasticity and cognate subjects | |
| William Mitchinson Hicks | 1912 | On the ground of his researches in mathematical physics | |
| Grafton Elliot Smith | 1912 | No citation. | |
| William Johnson Sollas | 1914 | For researches in palaeontology | |
| Joseph Larmor | 1915 | On the ground of his numerous and important contributions to mathematical and physical science | |
| William Rivers | 1915 | On the ground of his important contributions to ethnography and ethnology | |
| William Bateson | 1920 | On the ground of his contributions to biological science, and especially his studies in genetics | |
| Frederick Blackman | 1921 | For his researches on the gaseous exchange in plants & on the operation of limiting factors | |
| Albert Seward | 1925 | For his researches on the palaeobotany of Gondwanaland | |
| John Edward Marr | 1930 | For his pioneer work in the accurate zoning of the palaeozoic rocks | |
| Patrick Laidlaw | 1933 | For his work on diseases due to viruses, including that on the cause and prevention of distemper in dogs. | |
| Alfred Harker | 1935 | In recognition of his distinguished work and influence as a petrologist | |
| Paul Dirac | 1939 | For the leading part he had taken in the development of the new quantum mechanics | |
| William Topley | 1942 | For his outstanding work on experimental epidemiology and immunology | |
| Harold Jeffreys | 1948 | For his distinguished work in geophysics and his important contributions to the astronomy of the solar system | |
| Edward Appleton | 1950 | For his work on the ele transmission of electromagnetic waves round the earth and for his investigations of the ionic state of the upper atmosphere | |
| Frederic Bartlett | 1952 | In recognition of his creation of an experimental school of psychology which has established under his leadership an outstanding position recognised internationally as without superior | |
| Nevill Mott | 1953 | In recognition of his eminent work in the field of quantum theory and particularly in the theory of metals | |
| John Cockcroft | 1954 | In recognition of his distinguished work on nuclear and atomic physics | |
| W. V. D. Hodge | 1957 | In recognition of his distinguished work on algebraic geometry | |
| Rudolf Peierls | 1959 | In recognition of his distinguished work on the theoretical foundations of high energy and nuclear physics | |
| Raymond Lyttleton | 1965 | In recognition of his distinguished contributions to astronomy, particularly for his work on the dynamical stability of galaxies | |
| Frank Yates | 1966 | In recognition of his profound and far-reaching contributions to the statistical methods of experimental biology | |
| Joseph Hutchinson | 1967 | In recognition of his distinguished work on the genetics and evolution of crop-plants with particular reference to cotton | |
| Charles Oatley | 1969 | In recognition of his distinguished work in the wartime development of radar and latterly for the design and development of a highly successful scanning electron microscope | |
| Frederick Sanger | 1969 | In recognition of his pioneer work on the sequence of amino acids in proteins and of nucleotides of ribonucleic acids | |
| Fred Hoyle | 1974 | In recognition of his distinguished contributions to theoretical physics and cosmology | |
| Abdus Salam | 1978 | In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the physics of elementary particles with special reference to the unification of the electromagnetic and weak interactions | |
| Roger Penrose | 1985 | For his fundamental contributions to the theory of gravitational collapse and to other geometric aspects of theoretical physics | |
| Eric Denton | 1987 | In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the physiology of marine animals, to marine biology generally, and his leadership of UK marine science | |
| Robert Hinde | 1996 | In recognition of his contributions to the field of animal behaviour and the dominant influence it achieved on the emerging field of ethology | |
| Christopher Dobson | 2009 | For his outstanding contributions to the understanding of the mechanisms of protein folding and mis-folding, and the implications for disease |