About this Event
The Croonian Medal and Lecture 2026 is awarded to Dr David Baker for pioneering the design of completely new proteins as well as playing key roles in the development of protein structure prediction and protein engineering tools.
Proteins mediate the critical processes of life and beautifully solve the challenges faced during the evolution of modern organisms.
The focus of Dr David Baker's lab is the design of a new generation of proteins that address current-day problems not faced during evolution. In contrast to traditional protein engineering efforts which modify naturally occurring proteins, they design new proteins from scratch to optimally solve these problems.
Dr Baker's lab develop and use deep learning methods to design these new proteins with new functions, produce synthetic genes encoding the designs, and characterize them experimentally.
In this talk, he will describe the design of proteins to address current challenges in health, technology, and sustainability.
Dr David Baker is a Nobel laureate, Professor of Biochemistry, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator, and Director of the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington. He is also an adjunct professor of genome sciences, bioengineering, chemical engineering, computer science, and physics at the University of Washington.
His lab develops software for protein design and uses it to create molecules that help solve challenges in medicine, technology, and sustainability. Recent work includes the development of machine learning methods for generating functional proteins.
David Baker received his PhD in biochemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, and conducted postdoctoral research in biophysics at UCSF. He has published more than 650 scientific papers, been awarded over 100 patents, and co-founded 21 biotechnology companies. More than 100 of his trainees have gone on to independent faculty positions.
He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2021 Breakthrough Prize and the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for computational protein design”. A member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Dr Baker was included in TIME’s inaugural list of the 100 Most Influential People in health.
Attending the event
- The event is free to join, please register via Eventbrite for a ticket
- You will only be able to join us in person on the day if you registered for an in person ticket on Eventbrite.
- Live subtitles will be available in-person and virtually
Attending in person
- This lecture can be attended in-person at the Royal Society
- Doors will open to the public at 6.00pm GMT
Find travel and accessibility information on our website
Attending online
- The lecture will also be livestreamed here and on the Royal Society YouTube channel
- You can take part in the live Q&A via Slido
- This event will be recorded (including the live Q&A) and the recording will be available on YouTube soon after the event
- For all enquiries, please contact [email protected]
Event venue & nearby stays
The Royal Society, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London, United Kingdom
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