Barack Obama snubs British scientists by refusing to receive Royal Society medal
Barack Obama has snubbed Britain’s most eminent scientists by refusing to attend a Royal Society banquet in his honour at which he was to be awarded with a prestigious medal.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/8535741/Barack-Obama-snubs-British-scientists-by-refusing-to-receive-Royal-Society-medal.html
By Heidi Blake 6:30AM BST 26 May 2011 ________________________
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The US President rejected the invitation from the world-leading group of scientists and instead chose to visit a south London state school.
Sources close to the state visit said members of the Royal Society were “deeply offended” by the snub and had accused Mr Obama of being obsessed with his “street cred”.
The US President was offered the chance to receive the King Charles II medal, which is awarded in “exceptional circumstances” to heads of state who have “made an outstanding contribution to furthering scientific research in their country”.
The last person to receive the medal was Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, in 2010.
The honour was to be conferred on the US President at a dinner where he would be introduced to “some of Britain’s brightest and best young scientists” as well as some of the society’s most prestigious fellows.
But Mr Obama’s aides responded to the invitation with a “very short” note in which they said the president would rather spend time at a south London state school.
Mr Obama visited The Globe Academy in Southwark with David Cameron, the Prime Minister, on Tuesday.
The two leaders swapped a number of high-fives with pupils before rolling up their sleeves for a game of table tennis against two schoolboys.
A British government source close to the Obama visit said: “The Royal Society was really keen to do something with Obama and they expected him to be very honoured by the medal.
“Instead they received a very short response from his people saying that it would be better for him to visit a state school.
“The inference they took from that was that he was more interested in cultivating his street cred than in building links with British scientists.”
Bill Hartnett, the Royal Soctiety’s communications chief, confirmed that the offer had been rejected but insisted that no offence had been taken.
He said: “There were some early discussions about whether the visit was an opportunity for him to come to the society and meet some of the UK’s brightest and best young scientists as well as some of our fellows.
“We also discussed giving him the King Charles II Medal which is presented to heads of state.
“We put it to the Department of Business who sounded out his people and we were told it wasn’t possible.
“We were not offended. The idea was in its early stages so there was never any real expectation of it happening.”
Had Mr Obama accepted the invitation, he would have been greeted by Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society, who won a Nobel prize in 2001 for advances in genetics and cell biology.
Instead he met pupils at the Globe Academy who had won an award for designing a lunchbox which folds out into a plate.
