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Royal Society Prize for Science Books

Annual

Sponsored by: Royal Society

Publicity:
Royal Society
Press Office: 020 7451 2514
press@royalsoc.ac.uk

Administered by:
The Royal Society
6-9 Carlton Terrace
London
SW1Y 5AG

Email: sciencebooks@royalsoc.ac.uk
Website: www.royalsoc.ac.uk/sciencebooks

Previously known as the Aventis Prize for Science Books and the Rhone-Poulenc Prize for Science Books.. The winners are chosen annually from entries submitted by publishers.

Awarded to a popular non-fiction science and technology book, it aims to encourage the writing, publishing and sale of popular science books. There are two main categories; a Junior Prize for the best book written for under 14's, and a General Prize for the best book written for the general reader. The prize for each category is £10,000 and up to five shortlisted authors in each category receive £1,000 each. A panel of judges pick the General Prize winner, groups of young people in judging panels across the UK pick the Junior Prize winner.

Awarded in May.

Most Recent Winners

2006

Junior: Kate Petty (Author) and Jennie Maizels (Illustrator) The Global Garden

2005

Junior: Robert winston (Author) What Makes me, me? (Dorling Kindersley)

2004

Junior: Nick Arnold (Author) and Tony Do Saulles (Illustrator) Really Rotten Experiments (Scholastic)

2003
Junior:Frances Dipper The DK Guide to the Oceans (Dorling Kindersley)
General: Chris McManus Right Hand, Left Hand: The Origins of Asymmetry

Past Winners

2002
Junior: Richard Walker The DK Guide to the Human Body (Dorling Kindersley)
General: Stephen Hawking The Universe in a Nutshell (Bantam Press)

2001
Junior: Michael Allaby Dorling Kindersley Guide to Weather (DK)
General: Robert Kunzig Mapping the Deep: The Extraordinary Story of Ocean Science (Sort of Books)

2000
Junior: Peter Bond The Dorling Kindersley Guide to Space (Dorling Kindersley)
General: Brian Greene The Elegant Universe (Cape)

1999
Junior: Kirsteen Rogers The Usborne Complete Book of the Microscope (Usborne)
General: Paul Hoffman The Man Who Loved Only Numbers (Fourth Estate)

1998
Junior: David Lambert The Kingfisher Book of Oceans (Kingfisher)
General: Jared Diamond Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years (Cape)

1997
Joint Junior Winners: Nick Arnold and Tony De Saulles Horrible Science: Blood, Bones and Body Bits and Horrible Science: Ugly Bugs (Scholastic)
General: Alan Walker and Pat Shipman The Wisdom of Bones: In Search of Human Origins (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

1996
Junior: Chris Maynard The World of Weather (Kingfisher)
General: Arno Karlen Plague’s Progress (Gollancz)

1995
Junior: Jay Young The Most Amazing Pop-Up Science Book (Watts)
General: John Emsley The Consumer's Good Chemical Guide (WH Freeman)

1994
Joint Junior Winners: Linda Gamlin Eyewitness Guide: Evolution (Dorling Kindersley), Rebecca Heddle & Paul Shipton Science with Weather (Usborne) and David Lambert The Ultimate Dinosaur Book (Dorling Kindersley)
General: Steve Jones The Language of the Genes (HarperCollins)

1993
Junior: Thompson Yardley Mighty Microbes (Cassell)
General: Steven Rose The Making of Memory (Bantam)

1992
Joint Junior Winners: Peter Rowan The Amazing Voyage of the Cucumber Sandwich and David Burnie How Nature Works (Dorling Kindersley)
General: Jared Diamond The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee (Hutchinson Radius)

1991
Junior: Fran Balkwill & Mic Rolph Cells are Us and Cell Wars (Collins)
General: Stephen Jay Gould Wonderful Life (Hutchinson Radius)

1990
Under 14: Susan Mayes Starting Point Science Series: What Makes a Flower Grow? / What Makes it Rain? / What's Under the Ground? / Where does Electricity Come From? (Usborne)
Under 8: Ian Ridpath The Giant Book of Space (Hamlyn)
General: Roger Penrose The Emperor's New Mind (Oxford University Press)

1989
Junior: David Macaulay and Neil Ardley The Way Things Work (Dorling Kindersley)
General: Roger Lewin Bones of Contention (Simon & Schuster)

1988
Junior: Robin Kerrod Science Alive: Living Things (Macdonald)
General: BMA Board of Science Living With Risk (BMA & John Wiley)