Sir Michael Atiyah FRS was the first Director of INI and was appointed from the Institute’s formal inception on 1 October 1990.
After graduating with his BA, Atiyah obtained his doctorate and was made a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge in 1954. He became a Commonwealth Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton in 1955, before returning to Cambridge as a college lecturer from 1957 to 1961. He then moved to a readership at the University of Oxford where he became a Fellow of St Catherine’s College. Atiyah was the Savilian Chair of Geometry at Oxford from 1963, holding this chair until 1969 when he was appointed Professor of Mathematics at the IAS. He returned to England after three years, becoming a Royal Society Research Professor at Oxford. He was also elected a Fellow of St Catherine’s College, where he remained until 1990 when he became Master of Trinity College, Cambridge and the Director of INI. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1962.
Sir Michael has received many honours during his career, and the Institute is thrilled to be displaying 15 of his major medals and diplomas, all of which are currently on loan from Trinity College, Cambridge. At present this collection includes:
- 450th Anniversary Medal of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
- American Philosophical Society Benjamin Franklin Medal, 1993
- King Faisal International Prize for Science, 1987
- Royal Society of Edinburgh Royal Medal, 2003
- Royal Society Copley Medal diploma
- Royal Society Royal Medal Diploma
- Royal Society Copley Medal, 1988 (pictured, left)
- Fields Medal, 1966 (pictured, centre)
- Royal Society Royal Medal, 1968 (pictured, right)
- Brazilian Order of Scientific Merit Grand Cross
- French Grand Medaille de l’Académie des Sciences
- London Mathematical Society De Morgan Medal, 1980
- Charles University Prague 650th Anniversary Medal and Honorary Doctorate
- President’s Medal of the Institute of Physics, 2008
- Institute of Physics Presidential Certificate
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