Elon Musk, the former founder of fintech giant PayPal and CEO of SpaceX, The Boring Company and Tesla, has been named in a list of 50 scientists, researchers and engineers as a Fellow of the Royal Society.
The oldest scientific institution in the world, the Royal Society was formed in 1660 by King Charles I, with previous Fellows including Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin. Speaking to the press, President of the Royal Society Venki Ramakrishnan said:
“Our Fellows are key to the Royal Society’s fundamental purpose of using science for the benefit of humanity … this year’s newly elected Fellows are testament that science is a global endeavour and excellent ideas transcend borders. We also recognise the cutting-edge innovation taking place across industry, with many of this year’s Fellows coming from the thriving tech industry. For their outstanding contributions to research and innovation … it gives me great pleasure to welcome the world’s best scientists into the ranks of the Royal Society.”
Despite occasional outburst and controversy, Musk is often considered to be one of the world’s greatest tech entrepreneurs, as well as a unique and exceptionally strong leader. His ‘first principles’ method is now taught the world over for coming up with new ideas, with its users relating new ideas to their fundamental principles (i.e. transportation) rather than existing ideas (i.e. cars).