Professor Philipp Kukura Elected Fellow of the Royal Society

Professor Philipp Kukura, Official Fellow and Lecturer in Physical Chemistry and Professor of Chemistry, has been elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society, one of the highest honours in science. He is among eight Oxford academics recognised in the 2025 cohort of over 90 new Fellows from around the world.

Professor Kukura is internationally renowned for pioneering mass photometry, a groundbreaking technique that allows scientists to measure the mass of individual biomolecules in solution using light scattering, without the need for labels. This innovation has opened new avenues for studying biomolecular interactions with unprecedented sensitivity and time resolution, impacting both academic research and industrial applications.

Reflecting on the honour, Professor Kukura said:

“I am delighted to receive this honour, a recognition of the work enabled by the unique environment in the Chemistry Department, the Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery and the continued support by Exeter College. Most importantly, it is an acknowledgment of the effort, curiosity and creativity of the students and postdocs that did and continue to do the work in the laboratory.”

Professor Kukura read Chemistry at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, before completing his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned to Oxford in 2010 and became a Tutorial Fellow at Exeter College in 2011. In 2018, he co-founded Refeyn Ltd., a spin-out company that commercialises mass photometry technology, further extending the impact of his research.

For more on Professor Kukura’s work, visit the Kukura Lab webpage or his Exeter College profile.