News

Chemistry award for Bill Bryson

(2 November 2005)

University Chancellor Bill Bryson, author of the publishing phenomenon A Short History of Nearly Everything, has been honoured by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Bill attended the Palace of Westminster on Tuesday 1 November, where the Society conferred upon him its President’s Award for services to advancing the cause of the chemical sciences. He was presented with the award by drug discovery scientist Dr Simon Campbell, President of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Dr Campbell, who launched the Royal Society of Chemistry’s current Campaign for Chemistry, said today: “We have been privileged this year to have had the support of Bill Bryson, whose book impressed me and many of my colleagues by its outstanding command of detail and by the manner in which it made science accessible and inviting to non-scientists. On top of this, Bill is to lend his name and financial support to an RSC prize aimed at schools, which will encourage and reward science writing and communication as part of students’ school experience.