Michael Faraday Prize Lecture: Life in the fast lane — What the past tells us about evolution under pressure

Join us for the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize Lecture delivered by 2026 winner Professor Anjali Goswami FRS.

Why do some species survive extreme changes in their environment and quickly exploit new opportunities, while others are consigned to the fossil record? Why do some diversify into highly varied forms, while others potter along at low numbers, seemingly unchanged for millions of years? Why do groups that dominate global ecosystems disappear suddenly, allowing minor players to take the lead? As we enter a period of unprecedented environmental change, lessons from the past have never been more important.

In this talk, evolutionary biologist Professor Anjali Goswami explores the evolutionary paths that have shaped life on Earth over hundreds of millions of years. With examples spanning single-celled organisms to dinosaurs, she explains how her lab’s research uses new technologies, especially imaging and AI, to piece together the pace of evolutionary change across diverse species and to understand what determines which ones can keep up.

The Michael Faraday Prize and Lecture 2026 is awarded to Professor Anjali Goswami FRS for her transformational research in vertebrate evolution and her exceptional public engagement, particularly her dedication to championing and advocating for women and people from minoritised communities within science and research.

Professor Goswami is a Research Leader and former Dean of the Graduate Centre at the Natural History Museum London. She currently serves as Chief Scientific Adviser and Director General of Science, Data, and Analysis for the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. She previously served as President of the Linnean Society of London from 2022-2025. For her contributions, Professor Goswami has previously been awarded the Linnean Society Bicentenary Medal, the Zoological Society of London Scientific Medal, the Hind Rattan Award, the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Robert L. Carroll award, the Palaeontological Association President’s Medal, and the Humanists UK Darwin Day Medal. She has published over 150 scientific publications and a children’s book on palaeontology.

Professor Goswami’s expertise is in vertebrate evolution and development. Her work spans insects to dinosaurs, but her main interest is in the evolution of mammals. To study previous episodes of extinction and environmental change, she has searched for fossils from Svalbard to Madagascar, with her primary fieldwork being based in India and Argentina.

The Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize and Lecture is awarded annually to the scientist or engineer whose expertise in communicating scientific ideas in lay terms is exemplary. The award is named after Michael Faraday FRS, the influential inventor and electrical pioneer who was prominent in the public communication of science and founded the Christmas lectures at the Royal Institution.