Miscellany

The Copley Medal of the British Royal Society for the Advancement of Science has been awarded to P. A. M. Dirac, Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge University, for his contributions to the present understanding of quantum theory, elementary particles, and electromagnetic fields. Included among the other awards presented during the Royal Society’s 290th anniversary meeting last month were the Hughes Medal, which was given to Philip I. Dee of Glasgow University for his work leading to the wartime development of microwave radar, the Sylvester Medal, which went to Cambridge mathematician Abram S. Besicovitch, and the Rumford Medal, which was won this year by Fritz Zernike of Holland, professor of theoretical physics at the University of Groningen and the discoverer of the principle of phase contrast, for his development of a new and valuable technique in microscopy.