Queen Mary academics elected Fellows of The Royal Society

Headshot of Inderjeet Dokal and Lars Chittka

The Royal Society, established in 1660, is the UK’s national academy of sciences. A self-governing Fellowship comprised of many of the world’s most distinguished scientists drawn from science, engineering, and medicine, the Fellows are leaders in their fields and their election recognises their invaluable contributions to science. 

Professor Lars Chittka is a leading expert on bees and animal cognition, most famous perhaps for his work on the intelligence and mental world inside the miniature brains of insects. His team has shown that bees are able to count, have individual “personalities”, learn to use tools by observation and might even have basic emotions.  

Professor Lars Chittka said: “I am immensely grateful to the Royal Society for this wonderful honour. I’m happy to join one of the oldest and most prestigious scientific societies in the world. I must also thank the many junior scientists bold enough to join my team in the eccentric endeavour to comprehend the mind of an insect, and, of course, the bees, without whose enthusiastic participation we wouldn’t have gone very far at all!”  

Professor Inderjeet Dokal is Emeritus Professor and Honorary Consultant in Haematology. He was recruited to be Chair of Child Health at Queen Mary’s Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry from Imperial College in 2006 and led the Centre for Genomics and Child Health within the Blizard Institute until 2024. His team’s key achievements centre on groundbreaking discoveries in bone marrow failure and telomere biology and how this affects ageing. He established an international bone marrow failure registry in 1995 that enabled his team to identify novel genes and genetic defects underlying dyskeratosis congenita, aplastic anaemia, and leukaemia. This work has led to the emergence of a new category of human diseases: “telomere biology disorders”. 

Professor Inderjeet Dokal said: “I am delighted to be elected a Fellow of The Royal Society. This is a great honour and recognizes the important contributions of all my team in the field of bone marrow failure. I am indebted to colleagues at Queen Mary and Barts Health NHS Trust for supporting me over the years.” 

Professor Andrew Livingston, Vice-President for Research and Innovation at Queen Mary said: “To be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society is one of the highest honours a scientist can receive. It is synonymous with research excellence, leadership and innovation and that’s why I am so proud that Professor Chittka and Professor Dokal have been recognised in this way, for the fantastic work and contributions they have made to their respective fields.” 

Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society, said: “I am delighted to welcome this newest group of exceptional scientists to the Fellowship of the Royal Society. “Their contributions reflect the highest standards of scientific endeavour. Whether advancing our understanding of vaccines or exploring the transformative potential of mathematics and computation, their work exemplifies the enduring value of curiosity, creativity and rigorous inquiry.  

“Our Fellowship is strengthened not only by individual distinction, but by the diversity of perspectives and experiences its members bring. This incoming cohort highlights the truly international character of contemporary science and underscores the vital role that plays in achieving breakthroughs that benefit us all.”  

The Fellows and Foreign Members join the ranks of Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Lise Meitner, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Dorothy Hodgkin.  

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